Vadim Devyatovski and Ivan Tikhon won a lawsuit in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, which lasted from the end of August 2008, when the athletes were announced positive results of doping tests taken at the Beijing Olympics. Thus, the silver of Vadim Devyatovski and bronze of Ivan Tikhon in hammer throwing are remained at Belarusian athletes.
«Now, the main desire is to forget everything», Vadim Devyatovski said in an interview to BelTA. «Our with Ivan victory is the result of a long daily hard work, lasted almost two years. In order to defend our rightness, we have spent all the time. However, we did not stop practicing, because we believed that arguments, presented to the court, were consistent with the truth. At the beginning of July, our British lawyer is to arrive in Minsk, and we will arrange a press conference where we plan to tell journalists about our struggle. I want to thank everyone who believed in me and Ivan. We felt truly popular support.
On December 11, 2008, the Disciplinary Commission of the International Olympic Committee, decided to cancel the results of Belarusian hammer throwers, Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tikhon, reached by them at the Olympics2008, because of positive doping tests. It was announced that there had been found an exceeding of permissible level of male hormone testosterone at the athletes.
The athletes made up their minds to dispute the decision of the Disciplinary Committee of the IOC at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The date of hearings was repeatedly postponed, however, the request to defer it, as a rule, was received from the IOC. The Belarusian side declared about inaccurate organization of the Beijing laboratory’s work and about deflection from the standards of the World Anti-Doping Agency at the time of the samples of Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tikhon studying. The Belarusian insisted on that violations made by anti-doping agencies and discords could affect tests results.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport finally agreed with this argument, defining the breach in the Beijing anti-doping laboratory’s work and cancelling the results of tests for both Belarusian athletes.
The decision of the arbitration court in favor of the Belarusian athletes was edited in 77 pages and published on the official website of the CAS. According to it, the athletes should be paid damages amounting to 50 thousand euro.
