Sun Yang calls for video evidence to be shown in hearing
SHOWS: MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND (NOVEMBER 15, 2019) (COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT - ACCESS ALL)
1. (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) SWIMMER SUN YANG SAYING ACCORDING TO COURT TRANSLATOR:
"I learnt from my council's translation about WADA's closing remarks which indicated that we have been lying, changing or manipulating a lot of facts in our statement submission. However, I'd like to make the point that my request for this public hearing today is to be open and transparent to the whole world and to disclose the truth and the facts that happened that night in the doping control session, and actually we have copies of a number of photos and even filming video recording from that night. I don't know if was permitted to play the video here today to show everybody what kind of operation was put in place by IDTM (International Doping Tests & Management). I'm pretty sure everybody will be very shocked and surprised. I don't know whether you have the courage to allow me to play this video from that night."
2. SUN YANG INDICATING HE WANTS ANOTHER TRANSLATOR TO HELP WHO SITS DOWN ALONGSIDE SUN YANG
3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF THE PANEL FRANCO FRATTINI, SAYING:
"Who is the person, who is here?"
4. WIDE VIEW SHOWING THE UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATOR LEAVING
5. (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) SWIMMER SUN YANG SAYING ACCORDING TO COURT TRANSLATOR:
"I'd like to argue if according to the statements made by IDTM and WADA today, if the mistakes made by the doping control personnel were not serious, we can assume that everybody sitting behind me, in the public area, could be or could perform as a doping control personnel."
6. WIDE VIEW OF THE COURT
7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF THE PANEL FRANCO FRATTINI, SAYING:
"Being a judge, I'm fully aware of the emotions and fully aware of the, I would say, of the sufferings you mentioned before the court, but nevertheless, our responsibility is to interpret the law."
8. END OF THE HEARING, SUN YANG BOWS
STORY: Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang told an appeal hearing on Friday (November 15) that he refused to take an out-of-competition doping test last year as the three anti-doping officials who turned up at his home in China could not prove their identity before pressing for a video from he night be shown at the hearing.
Sun said he had filmed the whole incident and asked for it to be shown in the During a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing which was dogged by translation problems.
"I am pretty sure everyone would be shocked and surprised," he said. The head of the CAS panel said they would review the video later.
Sun said the officials failed to present their identifications adding that he hoped the hearing would "disclose the truth and the facts that happened that night in the doping control session."
The swimmer has been cleared of wrongdoing by swimming's governing body FINA over his conduct during a random late-night drug test at his home in September last year, however, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has appealed to CAS against that ruling.
A FINA report said that Sun questioned the credentials of the testers before members of his entourage smashed the vials containing his blood samples with a hammer. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Sun faces a potential ban of up to eight years, which would rule him out of next year's Tokyo Olympics, if he loses the case as he served a three-month suspension in 2014 for taking the stimulant trimetazidine.
The 27-year-old is one of China's top sportsman, having won two golds at the 2012 Olympics and another in 2016, and the case has attracted huge interest in his homeland.
