Justice is finally served as Simona Halep receives major relaxation from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on her appeal against doping charges!

Simona Halep receives good news as her ban gets reduced to 9 months.

Justice is finally served as Simona Halep receives major relaxation from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on her appeal against doping charges!

Simona Halep (via Imago)

Simona Halep, the Romanian power-hitter receives a major relaxation from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on her appeal against doping charges. After facing disqualification for a couple of years and a week after her trial, the decision is finally served for Halep. 

The ITF banned the 32-year-old after they found traces of Roxadustat in her blood sample at the 2022 Open. Standing her case regularly, Halep pleaded not guilty and finally appealed in front of the court for three days. Following the trial, the CAS Panel released a statement weeks after the trial. 

The CAS Panel has unanimously decided to reduce her 4-year ban to just nine months, which was over in July 2023. While Halep was guilty of breaching the doping code of conduct, the court revealed that other substances had contaminated the Romanian. 

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Though she did not take it intentionally, the CAS Panel found Halep did bear some level of fault for not looking into the substances she was given and, hence, the contamination. Keeping this in mind, the court reduced the sentence to 9 months, starting from August 22, 2022. 

The CAS Panel has unanimously determined that the four-year period of ineligibility imposed by the ITF Independent Tribunal is to be reduced to a period of ineligibility of nine (9) months starting on 7 October 2022, which period expired on 6 July 2023. As that period expired before the appeal procedures were even lodged with the CAS, the CAS Panel has determined it appropriate to issue the operative part of the Arbitral Award as soon as practicable, together with a comprehensive media release.  
ruled the CAS Panel.

Simona Halep was given credit for the extra time served after a nine-month ban, as the Romanian was found to be half guilty

Simona Halep has been making multiple headlines for the ban. After she had been caught breaching the doping rule, the Romanian had to suffer a 4-year ban. Multiple pleads and trials later, the 32-year-old was ruled half-guilty as her sentence was reduced to nine months.

Simona Halep
Simona Halep (via Imago)

Furthermore, Halep got credit for the time served after the completion of the ban, and the ITIA was ordered to pay the Romanian 20,000 CHF, as a contribution towards her legal fees and other expenses incurred in the proceedings.

The CAS Panel has also ordered the disqualification of all competitive results achieved by Ms. Halep from 29 August 2022 (the date of her positive sample) to 7 October 2022, including forfeiture of any medals, titles,ranking points and prize money. Therefore, the appeal filed by the ITIA is dismissed and the appeal filed by Simona Halep is partially upheld (her request to backdate the start of the suspension on 29 August 2022is dismissed)
The CAS decided.

However, while Halep did get the credit for the extra months served, all her results, including the points, prize money, and titles earned from 29th August to 7th October, had to be disqualified and retained by the CAS. An enormous sigh of relief for the Romanian, who can now get back to action and prepare ahead of a huge year.

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