Appeal Decision Will Likely Put Veerpalu Case to Rest

The saga of Estonian Andrus Veerpalu’s doping trial has dragged on for well over a year, but with a final ruling in his appeal expected soon after the conclusion of the trial this week at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausane, Switzerland, Veerpalu may have finally run out options.

According to Aivar Pilv, Veerpalu’s defense attorney, their appeal claims that FIS’s testing methods for doping are faulty.

The appeal proceedings began on Monday and continued into Tuesday. Estonian Public Broadcasting reported that court secretary general Matthieu Reeb said a decision would be made within a few weeks and would be final. It is possible to appeal the decision in Switzerland’s federal court, but only in cases of court room procedural errors.

Following his retirement from cross-country skiing in 2011, news broke that the Estonian star had tested positive for human growth hormone. The International Ski Federation (FIS) consequently handed him a three-year competition ban, which was recently reset for Veerpalu’s involvement in ski testing for Estonia on the World Cup this season.

For a detailed account of how the case unfolded, click here for FasterSkier’s previous coverage.