World Equestrian Game’s Competitors Face FEI Tribunal
The FEI have revealed that two endurance horses tested positive in a drugs test, at this year’s World Equestrian Games (WEG), Tyron.
The samples, taken on 11th September 2018, tested positive for controlled medication substances. Controlled medication substances are those which can be legally used to treat horses, but must be out of their system when the time comes to compete.
Substances were identified in Mora Inocente, ridden by Pablo De Los Heros for Argentina, and El Pangue Ciromagnum, ridden by Raimundo Undurraga Mujica for Chile, testing positives for corticosteroid dexamethsaone and corticosteroid triamcinolone acetonide, respectively.
As WEG controlled medication positives are not eligible for FEI fast-track, both cases are only just being heard by the FEI tribunal. However, both case only involve one substance, therefore mandatory suspension will not be imposed on the individual responsible.
At WEG, two types of anti-doping tests were used, as part of the FEI’s clean sport campaign; the pre-arrival test and the elective test. Pre arrival tests detect any prohibited substances, whilst elective tests will only test for 4 controlled medications.
On the announcement, Sabrina Ibáñez, the FEI General Secratary stated;
While of course we cannot overlook the two controlled medication positives, overall the outcome is evidence that the awareness campaign conducted prior to Tryon, the opportunity for our national federations to test their horses before departure and, on the human anti-doping side, our excellent cooperation with the United States anti-doping agency all had a positive impact.”
“These two positives show that our testing programme works, but even though these are not doping substances, athletes should be aware that treatments from the controlled medications list must have been cleared from the horse’s system by the time of competition. It is clear that we need to work even harder to get the message across that clean sport and a level playing field are non-negotiable.”
No pre-arrival tests had any detected positives.
