Georgia hit with bans totalling almost 36 years
NEWS: Six Georgian players and a member of the staff received their bans for anti-doping violations.
A parallel investigation between World Rugby and WADA was triggered when irregularities in urine samples were identified by World Rugby’s athlete passport management programme, covering an extended historical period of time prior to the Men’s Rugby World Cup 2023 in France.
Former Georgia captain Merab Sharikadze received the biggest ban – 11 years for his involvement in an “orchestrated scheme involving recreational drugs and sample substitution”.
Sanctions have also been imposed against players Giorgi Chkoidze (six years), Lasha Khmaladze (three years), Miriani Modebadze (three years), Otar Lashkhi (three years) and Lasha Lomidze (9 months).
In addition, team doctor Nutsa Shamatava has been handed a nine-year ban after it was found that Georgia’s national testing authority had tipped her off about upcoming tests, information that she then shared to the players.
These suspensions are backdated to include the provisional suspensions issued to all individuals upon charge and result in a complete suspension from all rugby activities.
World Rugby has also issued a misconduct charge against the Georgia Rugby Union. The Union accepted the charge and agreed to a sanction including financial penalty along with a requirement to implement a roadmap of various reforms and measures in its anti-doping training and education to mitigate the risk of any future issues of this nature arising.
World Rugby Chief Executive Alan Gilpin said: “This case demonstrates the importance of operating a robust, science-led anti-doping programme with coordinated biological profile analysis, testing and long-term storage functions.
“Our extensive four-year investigation has helped identify subversion of the doping control process and sends a clear message that World Rugby takes all anti-doping matters extremely seriously and is an unwavering champion of clean sport.”
Additional source: @RugbyPass
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