FEI Tribunal issues Final Decision on Prohibited Substance Cases

The FEI Tribunal has issued its Final Decisions on Prohibited Substances cases involving seven Endurance athletes, three trainers and nine horses from three different stables competing in Endurance events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai between 26 November 2016 and 14 January 2017.

Provisional Suspensions were imposed in January following positive findings in eight of the horses of the Controlled Medications Caffeine, Theobromine, Theophylline and *Paraxanthine - which at the time of the finding was a Banned Substance - and with the ninth sample also containing Flumetasone.

Since the proceedings were opened, the FEI Equine Prohibited List has been amended in order to downgrade Paraxanthine (the main metabolite of Caffeine) to a Controlled Medication and it has also been reclassified as a *Specified Substance, effective 1 January 2018.

The Tribunal has therefore agreed to the lift the Provisional Suspensions further to a request from the FEI given the reclassification of Paraxanthine.

“The FEI accepts that the circumstances of the cases to be exceptional on the basis that the Banned Substance Paraxanthine will be considered to be only a Controlled Medication rule violation in 2018,” explained Mikael Rentsch, FEI Legal Director.

The FEI Tribunal imposed two month suspensions on the athletes and trainers from 30 January with an exceptional six month suspension for the case involving Flumetasone, with fines of 1,500 CHF and contributions of 1,000 CHF towards legal costs per individual.

Details on these cases can be found here.

../..

Prohibited substance case under FEI anti-doping rules 

The FEI has also announced an adverse analytical finding involving Prohibited Substances.

The case involves the use of Nandrolone, its metabolite 5A-Estrane-3B 17A-Diol, and Stanozolol, which are *Banned Substances under the FEI’s Equine Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication Regulations (EADCMRs):

Horse: 8 Minute (FEI ID 104BW22/UAE)
Person Responsible: Khalifa Ali Khalfan Al Jahouri (FEI ID 10093885/UAE) 
Event: CH-M-YJ-E 120 - Valeggio sul Mincio (ITA) 23.09.2017

The athlete has been provisionally suspended from the date of notification (28 November 2017) until the FEI Tribunal renders a decision. The horse has been provisionally suspended for two months.

Details on this case can be found here.

*Notes to Editors:

The FEI’s Prohibited Substances List is divided into two sections - Controlled Medication and *Banned Substances. Controlled Medication substances are those that are regularly used to treat horses, but which must have been cleared from the horse’s system by the time of competition. Banned (doping) substances should never be found in the body of the horse.

In the case of an adverse analytical finding for a Banned Substance, the Person Responsible (PR) is automatically provisionally suspended from the date of notification. The horse is provisionally suspended for two months.

The FEI has also introduced the concept of Specified Substances. Specified Substances should not in any way be considered less important or less dangerous than other Prohibited Substances. Rather, they are simply substances which are more likely to have been ingested by horses for a purpose other than the enhancement of sport performance, for example, through a contaminated food substance. In the case of a positive for a specified substance, provisional suspensions are not automatic.

Information on all prohibited substances is available on the searchable FEI Equine Prohibited Substances Database.

FEI Media Contacts

Grania Willis
Director Communications
grania.willis@fei.org
+41 78 750 61 42

Ruth Grundy
Media Relations and Communications Manager
ruth.grundy@fei.org   
+41 78 750 61 45