Sports court postpones Chinese swim star Sun Yang hearing till October
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Tuesday it was postponing its hearing on the decision by Fina, the governing body of swimming, to clear Chinese star Sun Yang of doping.
Triple Olympic champion Sun was accused of smashing a blood vial with a hammer during an out-of-competition doping test last year, but was in January cleared by Fina.
Fina agreed with Sun that testers had failed to produce adequate identification or follow correct protocol.
The World Anti-Doping Agency responded by taking the case to CAS.
After escaping a ban, Sun was able to compete in last month's world championships in Gwangju, South Korea, where the 27-year-old won two golds, but became a focus of protests from rivals.
In a statement released on Tuesday, CAS said the hearing had been provisionally scheduled for next month "but due to unexpected personal circumstances, one of the parties was obliged to request a postponement of the hearing".
The statement said the hearing was unlikely to be "before the end of October," when it would probably be held in Switzerland.
CAS said that, "at the request of the parties involved", the hearing would, unusually, be open to the public. Last month, Sun's lawyers said that he wanted a public hearing to clear his name.
"This will be only the second time in the history of CAS that a hearing is held in public," the sports court said.
The first hearing in public, in 1999, also involved Fina, which had found Irish swimmer Michelle Smith de Bruin guilty of doping. Smith requested an open hearing.
CAS ruled for Fina, who had found that the Irish swimmer had tried to dilute her urine sample with alcohol. - AFP
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