Maria Sharapova has lodged an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to challenge a two-year suspension which was imposed on her last week.
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“In her appeal to the CAS, Ms. Sharapova seeks the annulment of the Tribunal’s decision to sanction her with a two-year period of ineligibility further to an anti-doping rule violation”, CAS said in a statement, adding that a decision would be made by July 18 at the latest.
“It has not been decided whether or not a hearing would be held in this matter”.
Organisers of the event, staged at the stadium where Bolt won double sprint gold and the 4x100m relay in 2012, said the Jamaican world record holder would race in the 200m.
Sharapova said then she was not aware that WADA barred athletes from using meldonium, also known as mildronate, as of January 1.
Andy Murray again criticised Maria Sharapova over her failed drugs test, saying the Russian had no “valid excuse”.
The panel also said various elements of Sharapova’s case “inevitably lead to the conclusion” she took the substance “for the objective of enhancing her performance”.
Sharapova’s appeal to the CAS comes despite the Tribunal ruling that she had deliberately used meldonium, the heart attack drug manufactured in Latvia, to boost endurance.
The situation with Sharapova is complicated by the fact she has admitted to using meldonium after it was banned.
Speaking in the immediate aftermath of the tribunal’s verdict last week, Sharapova said: “While the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the anti-doping rules, I can not accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension”. She could have been barred from competing for up to four years. “But my view hasn’t changed since March at all”.
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“I do feel like if you’re cheating and are caught, and you are gaining advantage on your opponents, then you have to be punished for that”.
