Kuala Lumpur: The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has finally made its verdict regarding Lee Chong Wei’s doping incident on Monday, with a statement posted on it’s official web site that said: “Malaysian player, Lee Chong Wei, has received an eight-month sanction for an anti-doping regulation violation.“
The statement further revealed that the violation was unintentional.
‘Given arguments and evidence put forward by Lee’s legal team at the hearing in the Netherlands, the panel stated: “The panel is convinced this is not a case of doping with intent to cheat.”
However, the panel found that Lee had been “negligent”, but with the degree of negligence being “rather light” as “he did not realize he had ingested a Specified Substance (Dexamethasone)”.
That conclusion led to a sanction of eight months’ ineligibility. ‘
Lee Chong Wei will be eligible to start playing on May 1, 2015.
‘The Doping Hearing Panel has deemed it “correct and fair” to backdate the period of ineligibility to the date of sample collection, thereby ending his sanction on 30 April, 2015, and making Lee Chong Wei eligible to resume his badminton career on Friday 1 May, 2015.’
In a press conference that was held at 3.30pm on Monday, by Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and attended by Lee Chong Wei, the minister said Lee Chong Wei has agreed to keep playing badminton at the highest level and also would like to play for the Malaysia team in the Sudirman Cup and SEA Games.
BadmintonPlanet.com’s note to everybody:
A big THANK YOU to BWF, Lee Chong Wei’s legal team, family, friends, and fans that have continued to support him during that difficult time. But the good news is, we can now move forward and get ready for more action from THE ONE AND ONLY, Lee Chong Wei!
