Gabe Hamlin has been banned for two years after testing positive for cocaine.
Hamlin, who was at Wigan when he tested positive for cocaine, claimed he tested positive after kissing a woman he met through an online dating app.
He insisted he had not taken the substance, with the UKAD judgement revealing that: “He asserts that on the evening of 7 February 2019 (the night before sample collection) he was at his home with a woman he had met through an online dating application.
“Mr Hamlin indicates that he and the woman kissed during the course of the evening from around 10:30pm. Mr Hamlin maintains he did not consume cocaine or see the woman consuming it; he suggests that she appeared ‘very chatty and visited the bathroom several times’ and that he discovered white powder in his bathroom the following morning (though he did not presume this to be cocaine at that time).”
But his story did not stand up and his account was not accepted.
Pat Myhill, UK Anti-Doping Director of Operations, said: “Cocaine is a dangerous drug with significant health risks, which has no place in sport.
“This case is another example of a metabolite of cocaine resulting in an athlete receiving a ban from sport. We realise that the length of sanctions for this substance can vary between cases, this is because of the specific sanctions laid out in the Anti-Doping Rules. The independent expert witness in this case ruled out the possibility that ingestion took place during the In-Competition period. This means that a possible four-year ban was reduced to two years.
“Athletes are solely responsible for what is in their system, regardless of how they claim it got there and whether there was an intention to cheat or not. It is quite simply not worth the risk.”
His two-year suspension is back-dated and he will be free to return to action of February 7, 2021.
