Andrea Iannone Ban Extended to Four Years
Rennie Scaysbrook | November 10, 2020
The worst possible news for Andrea Iannone came through on Tuesday as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) imposed a four-year period of ineligibility on the Italian, essentially bringing his MotoGP career to an end.
Iannone tested positive for banned anabolic steroid Drostanolone at last year’s Malaysian MotoGP. Initially hit with an 18-month ban from the FIM International Disciplinary Court, the 30-year old appealed the decision, only to be countered by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who pushed for a four-year ban.
After meeting in October, the CAS finally decided to apply WADA’s wishes. A statement stated the CAS Panel ruled that Iannone was unable to establish the precise meat he ate which he claimed was contaminated with banned substance Drosthanolone. Nor were his team able to prove any meat he had eaten was contaminated.
“Since it is for an athlete to establish on the balance of probabilities that an ADRV is not intentional, his inability to do so means that he is deemed to have committed an intentional ADRV, pursuant to the applicable anti-doping rule,” read the official statement. Aprilia’s late hunt for a full-time rider in 2021 is on.
Iannone took to Instagram in response to the near career-ending ban.
“Today I’ve received the worst injustice I could ever have imagined. They ripped my heart apart from my greatest love. No logical sense in these allegations accompanied by incorrect facts.
“For this, there will be an appropriate place and time … because I certainly do not give up. I knew I was facing strong powers, but I was hoping. I was hoping for intellectual honesty and the affirmation of justice. Right now, I am suffering at the highest level I could imagine. Whoever has tried to destroy my life will soon understand how much strength I have in my heart.
“The power of innocence and above all, a clear conscience. A sentence can modify the events but not the man.”
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