Whereabouts sanctions reversed for Kim and Lee

A Doping Hearing Panel at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) has expunged the one-year sanction against Korean men’s doubles players Kim Ki Jung and Lee Yong Dae, meaning that the two men can get back to playing.  A BWF press release today said that “significant new evidence was presented in the Disciplinary Committee process against the Badminton Korea Association (BKA) and in the Joint Appeal Brief to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)”.

Kim and Lee had presented an appeal to the CAS before the decision came down against the BKA earlier this month but the BWF Doping Hearing Panel has determined that this new material evidence that the players themselves were not at fault makes the CAS Appeal “almost entirely unnecessary”.

The press release further states:

The Panel has determined all strikes for Missed Tests and Filing Failures against both players in 2013 are cancelled and that no violation was therefore committed. Any record of the sanction against the two doubles’ specialists has been expunged and Lee Yong Dae has been reinstated as a member of the BWF Athletes’ Commission…BKA had assumed an administrative role in managing Korean players’ Whereabouts programme…The association was fined USD 41,170 for breaching the BWF Anti-Doping Regulations – which BKA admitted – and for failing in its duty of care for Kim and Lee through administrative failure, thereby contributing to the three strikes against the players which made them ineligible.

The decision frees up Kim Ki Jung and Lee Yong Dae not only for the Asian Games this September in Incheon, but also for next month’s Thomas Cup Finals.

Click here to read the complete BWF press release