Law firm helps athlete drugged by coach
SPORTS lawyers at the Manchester office of law firm Mills & Reeve have helped a young British sprinter who failed a drugs test return to the sport after she was unwittingly given a banned substance by her coach.
Walter Nicholls represented Bernice Wilson who was facing a four-year ban after testing positive for clomiphene.
Wilson had been previously banned for four years in 2011 after she tested positive for testosterone and clenbuterol. Before her return to the sport, Wilson was required to take another drugs test in February 2015, which she failed and was facing another four-year ban.
Wilson said she had been unknowingly given the drug by her coach George Skafidas. It was also claimed that the young athlete had suffered years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of the coach.
On the advice of Mills & Reeve, Wilson agreed to testify against Skafidas who has subsequently been handed a lifetime ban from the sport by Britain’s Anti-Doping Agency (UKAD) for doping offences relating to Wilson.
The UKAD said that Skafidas had concealed a Notice of Charge sent to Wilson by UKAD and ‘knowingly provided a false account to UKAD’ during his interview in Greece in June 2015.
Wilson’s four-year ban was reduced to 10 months as a result of “the substantial assistance’ she gave UKAD.
Her lawyers also successfully argued that her 10-month ban should have started from the date of the failed drugs test in February 2015 and not from July 2015 – the date she was due to return to the sport after the original four-year ban – meaning she could start competing immediately and not wait until May this year.
In a landmark decision, UKAD agreed that the ban should start from February 2015 and Wilson can now make a successful return to the sport.
Walter Nicholls said: “This is a fantastic outcome for Bernice who had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her oppressive coach. She still has no idea why he gave her the drug on the eve of her return to the sport. It was a brave decision to testify against Skafidas and that bravery has been rewarded.”
