London, July 31, 2012 – The ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has partially upheld an application of the Spanish athlete Ángel Mullera Rodriguez challenging his exclusion from the Spanish Olympic team.
On 9 July 2012, the Spanish runner Ángel Mullera Rodriguez was included by the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) in the list of athletes selected to compete in the 2012 London Olympic Games in the discipline of 3000m steeplechase.
On 19 July 2012, the Spanish sports newspaper “AS” published an article suggesting that e-mails had been exchanged between Ángel Mullera and a ”trainer” and that such e-mails could constitute evidence that Ángel Mullera had taken doping substances.
On 20 July 2012, the athlete received a message from the RFEA informing him of his removal from the Spanish athletics team for technical reasons.
Ángel Mullera filed an application at the CAS ad hoc Division in London against the RFEA in order to be readmitted in the Spanish Olympic team. The request was also directed against the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) and the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD).
Today, a CAS Panel composed of Mr Michele Bernasconi (Switzerland), President, Prof. Massimo Coccia (Italy) and Prof. Martin Schimke (Germany) held a hearing from 11am to 2pm. Ángel Mullera and the COE were represented by legal advisers and RFEA was represented by its General Director. The IOC and LOCOG were heard by telephone conference as interested parties.
A final decision was rendered this evening: the CAS Panel has partially upheld the request of Ángel Mullera and has ruled that the decision to exclude the athlete from the 2012 Olympic Games shall be set aside and that the RFEA and the COE shall confirm his selection in the Spanish Olympic team. In short, the Panel has considered that the reasons argued by the RFEA for the exclusion of Ángel Mullera did not constitute “technical reasons”.
Despite his exclusion by the RFEA on 20 July 2012, Ángel Mullera had not been officially withdrawn from the list of Spanish athletes participating in the 2012 Olympic Games. The final award with the grounds will be published on 1 August 2012 on the CAS website (www.tascas.org). —- CAS/Image © deltaworld.org
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