Canadian triathlete Kelly Guest remained the uninvited guest at the Commonwealth Games, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport early this morning rejected his appeal for reinstatement from a doping infraction.
But Fred Asselin, a winger on Canada's rugby team, was cleared to play by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and boarded a plane last night to join his squad.
Guest, 25 of Victoria, was sent home from the Games July 26 after a doping sample taken July 14 by the ethics centre at the International Triathlon Union World Cup in Edmonton showed traces of the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone. Under CCES rules, Guest was banned following the testing of the first part of his urine sample, the A test.
Guest's lawyer, Jonathan Taylor of London, Ont., argued in a six-hour session of the arbitration court that Guest was improperly banned under the rules of the CCES, when the less-stringent rules of the ITU should have been applied.
The ethics centre calls for an athlete to be banned automatically after a positive A test, with a B test on the second half of the urine sample available for confirmation at the athlete's behest. The CCES calls for a four-year ban. However, ITU rules say an athlete has the right to a hearing and the testing of the B sample before any suspension. The ITU sanction is lighter, only two years.
The arbitration court is an independent institution designed to settle sports-related disputes. It was created in 1983. In 1994, 31 sports federations recognized the institution's jurisdictions in these matters.
Marg McGregor, Canada's chef de mission, said last night that Guest could still make one more appeal to the CCES. "They have arbitrators standing by ready to render an immediate decision. But the latest he could leave to be here [to prepare for Sunday's triathlon competition]would be Friday if he had a successful appeal." But the CCES is the same body that argued to protect its jurisdiction and policies before the arbitration court yesterday -- apparently successfully.
McGregor said the CCES argument was that the incriminating test was a CCES test, done on Canadian soil and it was only an accident of timing that it happened at an ITU event. Had the CCES argument been turned down, it would have compromised the antidoping body's authority at home and opened the door for international federations to dispute all its rulings.
"Kelly could appeal immediately, or, considering the difference between a four-year and a two-year suspension, he may choose not to rush an appeal and to take time to gather his data," McGregor said. "The choice is Kelly's."
Guest was not available for comment on the decision, but a family spokesman said he was disappointed.
"It was a decision where practicalities of the Commonwealth Games outweighed legal issues," the spokesman said.
"He wants all Canadians now to focus on Simon [Whitfield]and the rest of the Canadian team on Sunday when they compete. He hopes to be racing again soon."
Guest has been replaced on the triathlon team in Manchester by Jocelyn Gascon-Giroux, 34, a professional engineer from Montreal who finished third at this year's national championships.
Triathlon makes its debut at the Games on Sunday, which is the final day of the competition.
Guest, who denies ever knowingly taking steroids, first blamed nutritional supplements for the positive test. He then said Tuesday the nandrolone may have come from steak he has eaten because he said the steroid is injected into cattle to increase growth.
The Canadian Cattlemen's Association disputed Guest's claim. In a release, the organization stated the steroid is not used in livestock production and that it is neither approved for use by cattle producers nor available to them. Asselin, who reported to Rugby Canada officials that he had been taking a pain killer for a toothache that might cause a positive test, was withdrawn from the team by Rugby Canada July 29, though he'd had a clean doping test July 22. But McGregor said a doping control review panel went over his file "and they said he's eligible. He's cleared for takeoff. We [Commonwealth Games Canada]did not remove him from our list of athletes."