Britain's Moore handed four-year ban after CAS upholds ITIA appeal
Moore, Britain's former number one-ranked doubles player, was provisionally suspended in June 2022 due to the presence of prohibited anabolic steroids Nandrolone and boldenone.
Moore said she had never knowingly taken a banned substance in her career and an independent tribunal determined that contaminated meat consumed by her in the days before sample collection was the source of the prohibited substance.
Moore lost 19 months in the process before she was cleared of the ADRV but CAS upheld the ITIA's appeal against the first instance "No Fault or Negligence" ruling with respect to nandrolone.
"After reviewing the scientific and legal evidence, the majority of the CAS Panel considered that the player did not succeed in proving that the concentration of nandrolone in her sample was consistent with the ingestion of contaminated meat," CAS said in a statement.
"The panel concluded that Ms Moore failed to establish that the ADRV was not intentional. The appeal by the ITIA is therefore upheld and the decision rendered by the Independent Tribunal is set aside."
Moore had previously said how she saw her reputation, ranking and livelihood "slowly trickling away" for 19 months during her initial suspension.
The 32-year-old had also filed a cross-appeal at CAS "seeking to dismiss the ITIA appeal, dismiss the nandrolone result in the ADRV or alternatively confirm that she bears no fault or negligence".
However, CAS said the cross-appeal was declared inadmissible and her four-year period of ineligibility would start from July 15, with credit for any provisional suspension that has already been served.
"Our bar for appealing a first instance decision is high, and the decision is not taken lightly," ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse said in a statement.
"In this case, our independent scientific advice was that the player did not adequately explain the high level of nandrolone present in their sample. Today's ruling is consistent with this position."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
The Open 2025 live: Rory McIlroy plots stunning Royal Portrush comeback as Scottie Scheffler leads
Rory McIlroy hopes to pull off an audacious comeback at The Open 2025 with Scottie Scheffler holding a commanding lead heading into Sunday's fourth round at Royal Portrush. The world No 1 is four shots clear of Haotong Li, with McIlroy able to conjure up both brilliance and the bizarre in an iconic round of golf on Saturday. Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton, Chris Gotterup, Harris English and defending champion Xander Schauffele are among the other contenders hoping to surge up the leaderboard if Scheffler stumbles. The fourth round begins at 8:30am with leaders Scheffler and Li completing Sunday's tee times at 2:30pm on one of golf's greatest days. The Open 2025, Royal Portrush - Fourth round Scottie Scheffler holds a commanding four-shot lead heading into the final round at Royal Portrush Rory McIlroy overcame the bizarre to produce brilliance in a gripping third round to keep hopes of a second Claret Jug alive Scheffler joined by Haotong Li in final pairing with 2:30pm tee time, as McIlroy joins Matt Fitzpatrick at 2:20pm The Open 2025 prize money, Claret Jug winner set to bank $3.1m (£2.4m) Scottie Scheffler on his excellent putting 'Yeah, I think there's some pretty subtle slopes in these greens. I've done a really good job just being committed to my line. 'Today I hit some good putts to start the round. I had a little three-putt there on the second hole, but I felt like I hit two putts the way I wanted to and I didn't let it bother me. I made a really nice putt there on the third hole to keep the momentum going. 'It was a little 10-footer for par, and that was what I felt like was a really important putt, and knocked it in. Then after that I felt like I did some good things out there.' Jack Rathborn20 July 2025 05:00 Rory McIlroy overcomes the bizarre to conjure thrilling charge at The Open 'Oh god,' Rory McIlroy gasped as his ball fizzed a little higher than he anticipated. But then he burst into laughter, 'I was on the golf ball!' The baffling moment on the 11th saw his second shot connect barely millimeters above a buried old golf ball, which proceeded to spit up and out of the ground at contact. The most remarkable golf shot in one of the most remarkable rounds of golf, as a legion of McIlroy supporters weaved their way around the links on a baking day at Royal Portrush. McIlroy's audacious charge towards the imposing presence of Scottie Scheffler at the top of the leaderboard may well fall short on Sunday, but his presence, as the Masters champion, back home in Northern Ireland, conjured a unique moment. It epitomised how McIlroy remains one of the most engrossing athletes to watch in sport, all while Scheffler quietly dismantled both the course and field. There wasn't a blemish in the world No 1's round of 67, with his putter salvaging any minor wobbles. And while it secures a four-shot lead at -14 over Haotong Li at The Open 2025, the day belonged to McIlroy. The 38-year-old stirred early on, putting together three birdies in his first four holes before that bizarre and glorious combined for a five-under-par round of 66 to position him tied for fourth at -8. Rory McIlroy overcomes the bizarre to conjure thrilling charge at The Open McIlroy's brilliance was broken up with a bizarre incident in a captivating round at Royal Portrush, with Scottie Scheffler surging clear by four shots (-14) in pursuit of the Claret Jug Jack Rathborn19 July 2025 23:59 The Open 2025: Tee times and fourth round schedule at Royal Portrush Fourth Round (Gbr & Irl unless stated, all times Local): 0730 Matti Schmid, Germany; Riki Kawamoto, Japan 0740 Dean Burmester, South Africa; Phil Mickelson, United States 0750 Sebastian Soderberg, Sweden; Andrew Novak, United States 0800 Shane Lowry, Ireland; Jacob Skov Olesen, Denmark 0810 Antoine Rozner, France; Viktor Hovland, Norway 0820 Adrien Saddier, France; Ryggs Johnston, United States 0830 Romain Langasque, France; Jordan Spieth, United States 0840 Francesco Molinari, Italy; Matthew Jordan, England 0855 Sergio Garcia, Spain; Justin Leonard, United States See the full list of Sunday tee times for the fourth round at the Open Championship below: The Open 2025: Tee times and fourth round schedule at Royal Portrush Rory McIlroy will play with Chris Gotterup in the final round of the 2025 Open Championship with Scottie Scheffler the man to beat after the American secured a four-shot lead Jack Rathborn19 July 2025 23:58 The Open 2025 prize money, Claret Jug winner set to bank $3.1m (£2.4m) The 2025 Open Championship is underway as Rory McIlroy attempts to win his home major at Royal Portrush. The Open is the oldest golf competition in the world and the winner will collect the famous Claret Jug, first awarded in 1872. They will also receive a healthy winners' cheque from the R&A worth $3.1m (£2.4m). The R&A raised the total prize fund to $17m (£13.4m) in 2024, up $500,000 from the previous year but still the lowest of the four major championship. JJ Spaun took home $4.3m for winning the US Open, McIlroy earned $3.6m for winning the Masters, and Scottie Scheffler received $3.3m for winning the US PGA Championship earlier this year. Jack Rathborn19 July 2025 23:57
The Guardian
2 minutes ago
- The Guardian
A steakhouse heir, Israeli spies and a cross-border abduction: the custody battle gripping Germany
For over half a century Block House has ranked as one of the most recognised restaurant chains on the German high street – a collection of family-friendly steakhouses whose staples include the 'classic Block burger' and filet mignon. But for months the Hamburg-based chain has been making headlines for an altogether different reason: a bitter and extraordinary custody battle between the heiress to the family business, Christina Block, and her ex-husband over the youngest two of their four children. Among those accused of being involved are Israeli spies, as well as the former head of Germany's domestic intelligence service. Now the row, which had until now largely played out in lawyers' offices and – unusually for Germany, where there are strict privacy laws – in the country's tabloid press, has reached a Hamburg court room. Amid a blaze of publicity, Block is standing trial in the northern port city's regional court, accused of aggravated child abduction, grievous bodily harm, and unlawful detention. More precisely, and at the heart of the case, is the allegation that she contracted a global security firm to carry out the violent, cross-border kidnapping of her two youngest children. If convicted she faces up to 10 years behind bars. In the dock with her is the former TV sports journalist Gerhard Delling, one of Germany's most well-known football presenters and Block's romantic partner since 2021. He is accused of aiding and abetting her in the alleged abduction operation. The case is being heard in a high-security court room usually reserved for terrorist trials, owing to the nature of those on trial, who include alleged former Israeli intelligence agents. According to the charges, Block is alleged to have contracted a group to ambush her ex-husband, Stephan Hensel, and their two youngest children, then 10 and 13, while they were watching a fireworks display as part of new year 2023-24 celebrations at Hensel's home in southern Denmark, close to the German border. The men allegedly knocked Hensel down, before dragging his son and daughter into a forest, across a stream and into a car. The children had their mouths taped and one was tied up. They were allegedly threatened with death, with one man telling them: 'Be quiet, otherwise we'll kill you.' Danish police with sniffer dogs were quickly dispatched on the tail of the kidnappers, due to an alarm that had been attached to the boy by his father. The children were taken to a farmhouse in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany and held in a mobile home until Block arrived to pick them up on 2 January 2024 and took them back to her Hamburg villa. They were subsequently handed over to police and taken back to Denmark days later. Both Block and Delling – who is accused of helping to organise the handover and the transport of the children to Hamburg – deny the charges. Among several alleged accomplices are August Hanning, a former head of Germany's federal intelligence service, the BND, who according to prosecutors forged the initial contact between Block and the Israeli spy firm believed to have carried out the abduction. Hanning, who has spoken in public in defence of Block, denies any involvement in the abduction. Block has said the security firm acted of its own accord, and that her mother, who died about nine months before the abduction, paid for the operation which is thought to have cost hundreds of thousands of euros and to have been months in the planning. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion Block is also accused of contracting the same firm to plant bogus child sexual abuse images on Hensel's property in an attempt to frame him as a child abuser. She also denies this charge. Block's defence team is expected to argue on her behalf that she had become desperate after her children were wrongfully kept by their father in Denmark when he refused to return them as agreed after a pre-arranged visit in 2021. Her lawyers say she had been granted sole custody of them, but Hensel had disregarded the German ruling. German police had taken the children back to Denmark after their abduction, at the request of Danish police. Danish authorities have refused to accept the German custody order. German media have widely reported that the same authorities have said the children do not want to have any contact with their mother. Block's lawyers have said that she was looking forward to her day in court to be able to defend herself against claims by her ex-husband that she is a danger to her children. Hensel has been granted custody of the two children by a Danish court, a decision that Block has tried but failed to get German courts to quash. They now live with their father in Denmark at a secret address. All are said to have changed their names. The high-profile court case is expected to continue until Christmas and to hear from 141 witnesses and 22 experts. During the two days it has sat so far, Block and Hensel sat just metres apart but neither looked at nor spoke to each other. Their daughter, now 14, has said she wants to speak in court. However, the case was adjourned earlier this week and is not due to resume until 25 July, after concerns were expressed over whether the children should be allowed to give evidence, in particular as their father faces separate legal proceedings for failing to abide by the German custody ruling and the evidence in both cases might clash. The founder and patriarch of the Block House business, Eugen Block, 83, who wishes diners 'much joie de vivre and pleasure' in the menus at his eateries, has said he had not seen his grandchildren at the heart of the row for several years. The custody battle had caused him 'much heartache', he told the Hamburger Abendblatt.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Mother of baby with spinal muscular atrophy wants all newborns to be tested for it
The mother of baby boy, who had 22 medical appointments with nine different doctors before being diagnosed with a rare genetic condition, wants all newborns to be tested for it. Chester was eight months old when his parents were finally told the condition that meant he couldn't swallow or move his legs and left him constantly distressed was spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA. But it's a delay that will have a lifelong impact. "He still can't hold his head up," said his mum, Kasey Mumford. "If he'd been diagnosed by the heel prick test at like three or five days old, he could have started medication straight away, because there's a treatment for it, there are three different types of treatment, but there's no cure. He will never not have this." Chester is nearly one now, but needs a ventilator at night to breathe. But SMA isn't one of the 10 rare illnesses that newborn babies are currently tested for in the UK, unlike in the US and much of Europe. Dr Vasantha Gowda, a consultant paediatric neurologist at London's St Thomas' Hospital, says clinicians from other countries are "all shocked that we don't have newborn screening for SMA". "If we treat these children early, there is a possibility that… they would walk, run, climb, play. They would not need any support for breathing. They would need no support for feeding," she said. "We know there's a potential to deliver this if the condition is picked up at the earliest possible stage." SMA causes irreversible loss of motor neurons, which affects muscle function. Nine out of 10 will either die before they're two or rely on a ventilator for life. And when 2,000 parents were surveyed recently, 90% said they'd want to know as soon as possible if their child had SMA. Four in every five wanted screening implemented immediately, and the same proportion considered the £5 cost per test good value. The lack of testing for the condition is, according to the chief executive of the charity SMA UK, "unethical". "The new 10-year NHS plan has highlighted that prevention is a key pillar," said Giles Lomax. "Newborn screening for SMA is essentially a very quick and easy win to align to that pillar. "We've got the treatments there, we've got pathways, we have the expertise, we could make prevention for SMA a thing right now." New therapies have been developed since SMA was last considered for inclusion, and in 2023, the UK National Screening Committee agreed to review the decision. A large-scale study is now under way and the different governments across the UK have said they'll be guidedby the advisory body's recommendations. But Chester's mum is clear that it must be included as "every single second counts" when it comes to receiving treatment. Instead, for Kasey and her partner, Dylan, there will always be that uncertainty about what might have been had their boy been diagnosed sooner.
