The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has accused the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) of omitting details of correspondence between the two organisations, when it announced a ban on Kylie Palmer last week. Swimming Australia had expressed surprise at not being informed of the positive until April 2015, despite the test having occurred in 2013. FINA had argued that it was forced to sanction Palmer, who took silver with the Australian 4x200m freestyle relay team at the London 2012 Olympics, after WADA asked for information on the case in February 2015.

“It is important to clarify some details that were omitted from FINA’s announcement”, WADA Director General David Howman (pictured) told Australian media. “WADA first requested information from FINA on the case on 5 October 2013, with a reminder sent on 4th December 2013 – both were ignored. More than a year then passed before we were informed on 23 December 2014 that the case had been closed. We asked for an explanation of this decision, and in February 2015 we finally received the reasons for the decision. Following a full review, we decided to file an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport with a request that the case be brought forward as an anti-doping rule violation.”