Procedural error results in three more weeks of waiting for QuickStep rider
The fate of Belgian track star and recent road convert, Iljo Keisse, remains in limbo after his appeal was postponed to the 10th of September due to a procedural error.
An obviously frustrated Keisse was frank when he spoke with Sporza: “It feels like they want to push me back into a suspension. I must now wait three more weeks, because a stupid piece of paper did not arrive to the court in time. It is a ridiculous reason.”
The native of Gent returned to racing this year after serving a suspension in 2009 for a positive test at the Gent Six in November 2008 for cathine and hydrochlorothiazide. Keisse claimed all along that he had not doped, and in a surprising change to the normal sequence of events, Keisse managed to prove his innocence via a series of testimony from three different university professors who all said that it was “very unlikely” that he took a particular drug. It was determined that Keisse tested positive for cathine as a result of the degradation of pseudo-ephedrine, which was an ingredient in a cold medication the rider was taking at the time. The presence of HCT, however, was a little tougher to explain, but Keisse’s team claimed that the Gent Six winner had been exposed to a contaminated nutritional supplement sample, a claim that the court accepted and allowed the rider to return to competition in 2010.
The ruling of the court was not taken in stride by WADA, however, and the anti-doping organization immediately set to work getting Keisse’s original suspension re-instated. WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn the friendly ruling. In the first week of Juy, the CAS ruled in favor of WADA, and suddenly, Keisse was suspended anew. The rider had served 11 months of his suspension at that point, meaning he still had 13 months remaining.
At the time, QuickStep boss, Patrick Lefevere, could only shrug: “I have no choice. Keisse can appeal against the ruling, but until his fate is clear, I have him on inactive status. In this moment, I can’t do anything different.”
For Keisse, all he can do is wait and hope now. The 27 year old is right to feel that WADA is out to get him. The organization cannot afford for a case to slip through its fingers, so it’s sparing no expense to ensure that the Belgian serves out the entirety of his sentence. Keisse remains defiant though, and plans to return by the middle of next month.
“WADA turned up in court with an army of lawyers. They will do everything they can to suspend me, so that they can set a precedent with my case. I am innocent though, and I expect to race again by mid-September.”
If Keisse is wrong, he will not be eligible to race again until August of 2011.