Published 12:50 IST, December 11th 2019

Lost in translation: swimmer Sun Yang's doping case hits interpretation snag

Chinese Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang's anti-doping case, in which he is facing an 8-year ban for missing a drug test won't be settled before mid-January

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Chinese Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang's anti-doping case, in which he is facing an eight-year ban for missing a drug test, won't be settled before mid-January because of translation problems, Court of Arbitration for Sport said. Swiss-based court said "some concerns were raised" about translation of Sun's testimony from Chinese into English at one-day hearing on vember 15. triple Olympic gold medal-winner, who served a doping suspension in 2014, is accused of smashing a blood vial with a hammer following a visit by testers in September last year.

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"Although organisation and schedule of public hearing was to satisfaction of arbitrators and parties' counsels, some concerns were raised with respect to quality of interpretation of Mr. Yang's testimony," a CAS statement said.

" parties are currently preparing an agreed-upon written transcript of proceedings, including a full translation of Mr. Yang's testimony, which panel will work from when deliberating and preparing arbitral award," CAS said, adding that case would t be decided before mid-January.

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Sun's CAS hearing, first in 20 years that was open to public, was beset by technical difficulties and interpreting errors between Chinese and English which frustrated lawyers and held up proceedings. CAS said private translation service was provided by Sun's camp and agreed by both parties, adding that it couldn't hire its own interpreters for reasons of "independence and neutrality". Swimming body FINA confirmed in January that Sun had used a hammer to smash a vial containing his own blood sample during testing session, but acquitted him of anti-doping violations, agreeing that testers had failed to produce adequate identification. But ruling outrd World Anti-Doping ncy which took matter to CAS, demanding a ban of between two and eight years for missing out-of-competition test. After being cleared by FINA Sun was able to compete in World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, in July, where he won two golds but became a focus of protests from rivals.

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12:46 IST, December 11th 2019