Jason Kenny has been confirmed as world champion in the individual sprint after world cycling’s governing body, the UCI, announced that French track sprint star Grégory Baugé has been stripped of the title he beat the British rider to win at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands in March last year. Annulment of Baugé's results follows a backdated one-year suspension relating to two infringements in respect of availability for testing and one missed test in the space of 18 months. France has also lost its team sprint title, which Baugé helped win.
In a statement released via British Cycling this afternoon, Kenny said: "The news came as quite a surprise and whilst it’s an honour to get my first senior World Championship title, I would have preferred to have achieved it under different circumstances. I am looking forward to riding the rest of the season wearing the rainbow jersey."
Sir Chris Hoy moves up to silver medal position from bronze. Beaten team sprint finalists Germany also benefit from the decision, with bronze medallists Great Britain again going into the silver medal position.
In November, the 26-year-old Baugé was handed a one year backdated suspension, expiring 22 December 2011, by Fédération Française de Cyclisme’s (FFC) National Disciplinary Commission.
That followed what the UCI described as “two breaches of applicable requirements regarding rider availability and one missed test in 18 months” on the part of the cyclist.
10 thoughts on “Updated: Grégory Baugé stripped of individual sprint world title, Jason Kenny gets rainbow jersey”
Why back date it? Is it just
Why back date it? Is it just so that Bauge can compete at the Olympics? Seems like an odd one…
step-hent wrote:Why back date
I guess so that the punishment relates to time the offense was committed so that any possibly performance-enhanced wins are forfeited.
ooops: double post
ooops: double post 🙁
Hmm, so the ban is backdated,
Hmm, so the ban is backdated, so he retains ability to compete at the Olympics, and has had the whole of his ban as a normal racing program building to the Olympics. Apart from losing his titles won during that period, how is that a ban? He’s not stopped competing, is available for the Olympics, and prepared off a full 4 year build up – isn’t that just “been stripped of his 2011 titles”?
Bigfoz wrote:Hmm, so the ban
Funnily enough his lawyer is muttering darkly about it all being a conspiracy by the UCI to upset his client’s preparations given the Games are in London and his main rival is British 😉
Our understanding is that it
Our understanding is that it would have been backdated to coincide with the third missed test, although there doesn’t appear to be anything on the FFC site that would confirm its decision in November (and would hopefully give more details and dates of the infractions in question).
If he was British, would the
If he was British, would the BOA ban him from the Olympics too?
andylul wrote:If he was
I doubt it, given the precedent that was set with Christine Ohuruogu.
One year ban for Whereabouts infractions, upheld by CAS.
She appealed the subsequent BOA lifetime ban to independent arbitration panel in UK, won the appeal.
She didn’t follow through her threat to run for Nigeria, got selected for GB for Beijing, and won gold.
Got to say this is a big step
Got to say this is a big step backwards for French cycling. A country that has actually done a lot over last few years to clean up cycling. This is no more than a way to ensure he can compete at the Olympics without having to miss any actual racing. Probably the most disgusting thing to happen in French cycling since virenque was allowed to keep his K.O.M. jerseys clearly won with added va-va-voom.
Why? There’s no suggestion of
Why? There’s no suggestion of drug taking here, it’s three whereabouts infringements. Moreover, it’s normal in this type of case for the penalty to be backdated to the date of the third infringement, as has happened here. One of the central issues of concern is why it took nearly a year for the FFC to hold the disciplinary hearing. I can’t imagine it’s helped Baugé’s preparations for 2012 having this hanging over his head for the best part of a year.