Adam Taylor acts for Olympic marathon champion Jemimah Sumgong in anti-doping dispute
Adam Taylor represented the 2016 Olympic marathon champion Jemimah Sumgong in her defence of an anti-doping rule violation of Tampering, in the anti-doping proceedings of IAAF v Jemimah Sumgong.
The case, and the decision of the disciplinary tribunal published on 25 January 2019, raised important arguments concerning the standard of proof and nature of the evidence required to prove a violation of article 2.5 of the IAAF anti-doping rules, concerning tampering, in a high-profile context.
At the heart of the case was a dispute over whether the athlete had provided false medical evidence during first instance disciplinary proceedings under the ADR, in order to corroborate an explanation for an adverse analytical finding for recombinant erythropoietin.
The tribunal found that the athlete’s whereabouts information was incompatible with the medical evidence she had provided to the investigation, and that her later failure to engage with proceedings at all told strongly against her, such that the anti-doping rule violation was proven.
The full text of the judgment of the disciplinary tribunal is available here.
Adam was instructed as sole counsel by Jason Torrance of FJG Solicitors, via the Sports Resolutions Pro Bono Panel.
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