The German Equestrian Federation (GEF) has announced their intention to pursue stronger sanctions against Christian Ahlmann. The Tribunal of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) fined Ahlmann CHF 2,000 ($2,133 Cdn) and suspended him from competing for 120 days which expires on December 18th, 2008.

The GEF believes that the Tribunal’s decision is not punishment enough and will appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). “The FEI has pleaded ‘doping’, the Tribunal decided it was ‘medication’. But that has not dispelled the suspicion,” explained Reinhard Wendt, the CEO of the German Olympic Committee for the cavalry.

The FEI defines a doping offence as: Agents, cocktails or mixtures of substances that may affect the performance of a horse; masking agents; substances with no generally accepted medical use in competition horses; substances which are usually products prescribed for use in humans or other species; agents used to hypersensitise or desensitise the limbs or body parts.” Whereas, a Medication Class A offence are: “Agents which could influence performance by relieving pain, sedating, stimulating or producing/modifying other physiological or behavioural effectshorse.”

A doping offence would constitute an abuse of the horse and could entail a fine of up to 15,000 CHF and/or a suspension of a minimum of 3 months up to life. The GEF is seeking a 24 month ban for Ahlmann from competing on the German Team.

 

 

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