The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) today announced that Australian boxer Omar Al-Shaick has received a two year sanction from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for failing to provide a urine sample during a no notice, out of competition test in Brisbane on 13 June 2006.

The CAS determined that Mr Al-Shaick had committed an anti-doping rule violation by refusing to submit to a request for sample collection after official notification.

Such an offence carries a maximum penalty of a two year suspension for the first offence under the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) Code.

In handing down its finding, the CAS found: 'ASADA, which has acted with scrupulous fairness in the proceedings before me, does not suggest, and nor do I find that the athlete did not genuinely believe that it was contrary to his religious beliefs for him to give a urine sample in circumstances where strangers would have to observe that sample leaving his body.'

However the giving of urine samples in this way is a universal, worldwide practice mandated by the WADA code. It is a practice that applies to athletes irrespective of their creed or religion. It is a practice which, apparently has applied to countless other athletes who happen to be Muslims without any such objection

ASADA Chairman Richard Ings said the sanction was a timely reminder to all athletes that they must comply with any request by a doping control official to provide a sample.

"This decision by the CAS reaffirms the long standing and strict obligation on athletes under the WADA Code to provide urine samples on request, irrespective of personal belief," Mr Ings said.

The sanction, which CAS backdated to the time Mr Al-Shaick last completed, means he will be eligible to recommence competition from midnight 1 September 2008.

ASADA