Egyptian powerlifter has two-year doping ban halved by Court of Arbitration for Sport

Egyptian powerlifter Fatma Omar has had her two-year doping ban cut to one ©Getty Images

Egyptian powerlifter Fatma Omar has had her two-year doping suspension reduced to one after new evidence was presented during an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), it has been announced.

The multiple Paralympic champion was suspended for 24 months from May 16 last year and fined €1,500 (£1,062/$1,636) for testing positive for banned substance clomiphene in a urine sample taken following the 2014 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Powerlifting World Championships in Dubai.

Clomiphene is on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list and is often used as a muscle building drug.

As a result of her ban, she may not have been able to defend her titles at the next year's Paralympic Games in RIo de Janeiro.

The Egyptian presented new evidence to the CAS, which subsequently saw her ban cut in half, but she will only be able to return to competition once she pays the fine imposed by the IPC.

The decision was made under article 10.4 of the IPC anti-doping code, which allows the "elimination or reduction of a period of ineligibility for specified substances under specific circumstances”.

The multiple Paralympic champion was able to provide new evidence but she will only be able to return to action when she pays the fine — Egypt's multiple-Paralympic champion Fatma Omar has had her two-year suspension cut in half but will only be able to return to action when she pays a fine ©Getty Images

Powerlifting has long provided serious concern for the IPC and the sport has been plagued with doping cases, many of which came about after the World Championships.

Georgia's Iago Gorgodze was handed a four-year ban in January for testing positive for a prohibited substance and he will now not be able to compete until 2018.

His suspension followed Brazilian Emerson Barbosa’s lifetime ban following two positive tests in the space of five years last August.

United Arab Emirates Rashed Hassan Ahmed and Kazakhstan's Oleg Gridassov were both given two-year bans for separate doping offences committed during the 2014 World Championships.

Those two cases came after Russia's Ilfat Mukhatarov tested positive for Indapamide ahead of the World Championships, while Ivan Palacios of Colombia was handed a reduced one-year ban after it was found he'd taken both Chlorothiazide and Hydrochlorothiazide for medical purposes.

This year, the IPC are continuing to try and tackle the issue through their Raise the Bar - Say No! to Doping programme.