• Motocross rider Christian Craig is to appeal a two year sanction issued by the international motorcycling federation (FIM) to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Craig announced that he had been sanctioned with a two year ban after testing positive for heptaminol, a stimulant, on 10 March 2018. ‘The FIM wanted the source of the trace amount of Heptaminol’, wrote Craig on Instagram (below). ‘It’s almost impossible to provide proof of source when they waited 10.5 months before notifying me- a delay they have not explained and have only offered an apology. Although the FIM have stated they don’t believe I intentionally ingested the substance, they argue I was negligent on ensuring everything that went into my body was examined by a medical doctor.’

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Woke up this morning to the results of my CDI hearing. The three person panel of judges, whom are appointed by the FIM, decided on a 2 year suspension from the testing date (March 10th, 2018). The two year suspension would mean I can no longer race until March 9th, 2020 and all results in between will be cleared. The FIM wanted the source of the trace amount of Heptaminol. It’s almost impossible to provide proof of source when they waited 10.5 months before notifying me- a delay they have not explained and have only offered an apology. Although the FIM have stated they don’t believe I intentionally ingested the substance, they argue I was negligent on ensuring everything that went into my body was examined by a medical doctor. I will be appealing FIM’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

A post shared by Christian Craig (@christiancraig) on Jul 29, 2019 at 3:42pm PDT

• FIFA has included sexual abuse as an offence in its 2019 Code of Ethics, introducing a minimum sanction of ten years. Article 23 of its Code of Ethics previously only prohibited ‘sexual harassment’, and didn’t cover sexual abuse. In June, FIFA sanctioned Keramuudin Karim, former President of the Afghanistan Football Federation and a former FIFA Standing Committee member, with a life ban following extraordinary allegations of sexual abuse. The 2019 Code of Ethics also reintroduces the term ‘corruption’ into Article 27, following criticism due to its removal from the 2018 Code. A summary of the major changes is available here.

• Cross country athlete Luke Traynor has returned an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine. ‘I want to make it completely clear that my violation was in no relation to sport or enhancing performance’, said the Scottish athlete on Twitter (see below). ‘This happened as a one-off and in a purely social situation with a drug I should never have taken’. 

Please see the below for my statement on the latest UKA announcement. pic.twitter.com/95ckURAJIH

— Luke Traynor (@luketraynor1) July 25, 2019

• The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has charged Andriy Semenov with an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) involving DHCMT (turinabol), based on reanalysis of sample taken at the Daegu 2011 World Championships. Semenov finished 22nd.

• The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed appeals from Zulfadli Zulkiffli and Tan Chun Seang against 20 year and 15 year bans issued by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), which found the Malaysians guilty of match-fixing in May. The initial BWF sanctioning decision is available here; and the CAS decision to dismiss the two appeals is available here.