Michael O’Reilly banned for four years for doping violation

Sport Ireland and the IABA have banned Michael O’Reilly for four-years for an anti-doping violation in advance of the Rio Olympics.

The Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (“the Panel”) found that he had “not discharged the burden of proving that his admitted anti-doping rule violation was not intentional.”

The ban is back-dated to the date of the failed test on 11 July 2016, meaning that O’Reilly will be eligible to box from 11 July 2020.

O’Reilly had been part of the Irish boxing team for the 2016 Olympic Games but tested positive for the banned substance methandienone on 4 August.

He was provisionally suspended for four years the following day.

O’Reilly informed the Panel that he intended to appeal the provisional suspension and requested the ‘B’ sample be tested.

On 9 August, the WADA accredited laboratory in Cologne confirmed the presence of methandienone in the ‘B’ Sample.

On the same day, O’Reilly withdrew the appeal and released a statement through his solicitor which confirmed that he “freely admits that he unintentionally took a supplement that may have contained a prohibited substance.”

He said he wished to engage in a consultation process with Sport Ireland with a view to challenging the four year ban.

The supplement in question was revealed to be ‘Falcon Labs Superdrive Testobooster Tech’. O’Reilly had not disclosed at the time of the test that he had taken the supplement.

O’Reilly provided an opened tub of the supplement which was tested at the laboratory in Cologne.

The laboratory “reported that while the product contained methandienone, the concentrations were not consistent with the timeline of events asserted by Mr. O’Reilly.”

Following this, Sport Ireland said it intended to impose a sanction of 4 years.

O’Reilly said he did not accept this sanction and decided to appeal the matter to the Panel for deliberation.

The hearing date was originally scheduled for 11 April 2017 but this was subsequently moved to 1 June 2017 at O’Reilly’s request to permit him to obtain an expert report.

A timetable for exchange of documents was agreed and, while O’Reilly filed his submissions on time, he did not file an expert report nor did he indicate that he would be calling an expert witness.

O’Reilly sought additional time for the filing of his report and the hearing was adjourned from the 30 May 2017 until 5 October 2017 to facilitate this.

O’Reilly produced an expert report on 22 September 2017 which Sport Ireland asserted was inadmissible due to it not being signed.

On 5 October 2017, the Panel ruled that O’Reilly had until 13 October 2017 to produce a valid report and, if produced, Sport Ireland would have the opportunity to prepare its own report.

The hearing was adjourned until December and, in this time, Mr. O’Reilly produced an admissible expert report with Sport Ireland commissioning its own expert report in response.

The hearing took place on 7 December 2017.

This afternoon, the Panel released its findings which can be read here.

The Panel concluded that O’Reilly had “not discharged the burden of proving that his admitted anti-doping rule violation was not intentional.”

It imposed a sanction of four years on the boxer as required by the Irish Sports Council Anti-Doping Rules and said it was “not satisfied that O’Reilly’s evidence disclosed any basis to reduce or eliminate that period.”