Vanessa Sarno accepts two-year ban after anti-doping violation

August 27 ------ PARIS Olympian Vanessa Sarno has accepted a two-year ineligibility for a violation of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Anti-Doping Rules. The International Testing Agency reported on its website that Sarno “committed three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period.” The ITA added that Sarno accepted the sanction proposed. “The athlete did not challenge the ADRV (Anti-Doping Rules Violation) and agreed with the consequences proposed by the ITA. Accordingly, the case was resolved via an acceptance of consequences,” the ITA said.

The ITA said Sarno’s period of ineligibility will be from August 4, 2025, to August 3, 2027, but also added that Sarno can appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Results of Sarno’s competition from January 1, 2025, the date of which the commission of the violation, to the start of the ineligibility period are also nullified, according to ITA. With the sanction, Sarno will not be eligible for a couple of major international events such as the 2025 and 2026 World Championships in Forde, Norway and Ningbo, China respectively, the 2025 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand and the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.

The ITA was the same body that reported the failed doping test of Filipino athletes Justin Brownlee of basketball and Ariana Evangelista of cycling during the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in 2023.

Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas president Monico Puentevella made it clear that the sanction is not related to a failed doping test as Sarno had personal problems which led to the non-declaration of her whereabouts to the local anti-doping body. “Failure only to report due to a personal problem,” said Puentevella. “No problem with drugs. She didn’t report her whereabouts due to a personal problem.”

Puentevella said Sarno is in her hometown of Bohol to attend to the personal problem, and a replacement will come in to take her spot in the national team. Under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules, an athlete classified under the registered testing pool (RTP) must declare their whereabouts to their anti-doping organizations (ADO) by a specific time and date for the next three months.

Information such as home address, regular activities, competition schedules, and their 60-minute time slot for each day where they will be available and accessible for testing must be supplied to the ADO. Whereabouts failures constitute either a missed test where the athlete can’t be found in the location provided to the ADO and can’t be located for testing, or a filling failure where the athlete didn’t provide his or her whereabouts on time or didn’t provide an accurate information.

Sarno is a two-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, winning in 2022 in Hanoi and 2023 in Cambodia in the -71kg division. The 21-year-old was a 2020 Asian champion in Tashkent, and a silver medalist in the same tournament in 2023 in Jinju, Korea. Due to her accomplishments, Sarno qualified in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but was a DNF (did not finish) after failing to lift 100 kilograms in the snatch.

Source: spin.ph