Australia's Mack Horton (left) refuses to stand on the podium with gold medallist Sun Yang. Photo: AFP
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https://scmp.com/sport/china/article/3023691/sun-yang-cas-doping-hearing-postponed-personal-reasons-october-earliest China
Sun Yang CAS doping hearing postponed for ‘personal reasons’ – October at the earliest
- Statement confirms Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing will be public and open to media
- Chinese swimming star faces a lifetime ban if found guilty of charge brought by Wada
China's Sun Yang after the final of the men’s 800m freestyle at the 2019 world championships. Photo: AFP
Chinese swimming star Sun Yang’s hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that was scheduled for September will not happen before October, according to the court.
“The CAS confirms, further to consultation with the parties, that a hearing was tentatively scheduled for September 2019 but because of unexpected personal circumstances, one of the parties was obliged to request a postponement of the hearing,” said a statement on the CAS website.
“Such request was assented to by the other parties and accepted by the CAS Panel. A new hearing date will be fixed as soon as possible and but is unlikely to be before the end of October 2019.”
The hearing, brought by the World Anti Doping Agency (Wada) after Sun was cleared of wrongdoing by swimming’s governing body Fina in a January hearing, will also be public as Sun requested. If athletes ask for a public hearing, the CAS is obliged to grant their request.
Sun’s lawyers made the request for a public hearing in July “to be fully transparent and to clear his name”.
The CAS statement also said the hearing would likely be held in Switzerland.
Interest in the hearing is high because, if found guilty, Sun faces a lifetime ban from the pool. The Chinese star was cleared by swimming governing body Fina earlier this year of destroying samples at an out-of-competition dope test at his home in Zhejiang last year, but Wada took the case to CAS.
His appearance at the recent world championships in South Korea, competing while awaiting the hearing, caused controversy with other swimmers.
Sun’s long-standing rival in the 400m, Australia’s Mack Horton, refused to take the podium after the Chinese swimmer beat him, while British swimmer Duncan Scott refused to shake hands with Sun after he won the 200m final.
Chinese swimming fans have been outspoken in their star’s favour, especially after Horton’s Australia teammate Shayna Jack was revealed to have failed a test that forced her to sit out the world championships.
Sun recently maintained that he is focused on next year’s Tokyo Olympics and it was revealed he may be in line to eventually head up Chinese swimming after he was appointed as an official, becoming the first active athlete to to be so appointed.
One of China’s Olympic volleyball gold medallists at Rio 2016, Yang Fangxu, was recently found guilty of doping by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency. Her four-year suspension for taking EPO related to tests taken 12 months ago, ahead of the 2018 Asian Games.