Wada vs Sun Yang and Fina CAS doping verdict ‘expected within days’

Report also claims Fina supported Chinese star’s appeal to have Wada lawyer and CAS case dismissed last year

Impending result, which could see Sun banned for eight years and miss Tokyo 2020, reignites social media in China

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Chinese swimmer Sun Yang poses after his public hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in November 2019. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:37pm, 26 Feb 2020Updated: 10:53pm, 26 Feb 2020

Swimming governing body Fina supported Chinese swimmer Sun Yang in a bid to throw out his Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing, according to Associated Press.

The report released on Tuesday night, said Sun’s lawyers had filed a Fina-backed appeal with a Swiss federal court over a possibly conflict of interest with Wada lawyer Richard Young.

The lawyer had worked on Fina’s legal commission until resigning in February 2019. Had a conflict of interest been ruled then Wada would have faced a race against time to meet deadlines and Sun could have walked away.

As it was, the swimmer’s delayed CAS hearing was heard in public in Switzerland in November. The case was between the World Anti-Doping Agency on one side and Fina and Sun Yang on the other, relating to an out-of-competition doping test at the swimmer’s home in September 2018.

China's Sun Yang holds up his gold medal as silver medallist Mack Horton (left) shuns the podium at the 2019 world championships. Photo: AP

Fina’s own hearing cleared Sun despite testing samples being destroyed and Wada took the case to CAS, looking for a ban of up to eight years. A guilty verdict is certain to end the swimmer’s hopes of Olympic gold in Tokyo this summer.

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