The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld the convictions of two British weightlifters convicted of doping offences at the British Weight Lifting Championships. In the proceedings, the weightlifters mounted a wholesale attack on the sample collection procedures undertaken by UK Sport and testing procedures carried out by the Drug Control Centre, which, if successful, would have threatened the standing of countless positive drug tests across the country. Mr Michael Beloff QC, sitting as a sole arbitrator, found, in refusing the appeal, that “BWLA fairly submits that the Appellants have not succeeded in establishing a violation in relation to any of the litany of complains made in the two notices of appeal … the charges were properly brought, properly proved and there are no grounds for allowing either appeal”.
Elisa Holmes represented the British Amateur Weightlifting Association at first instance and in the appeal.