Hammer thrower Mark Dry vows to clear name over four-year ban

Hammer thrower Mark Dry has vowed to clear his name after the double Commonwealth Games bronze medallist was banned from athletics for four years.

Scottish hammer thrower Mark Dry, pictured here before the 2018 Commonwealth Games, has vowed to clear his name over a four-year ban. Picture: Jeff Holmes

The ban resulted from a lie he told about his whereabouts when he should have been available for testing – he claimed he had gone fishing when he was actually visiting his parents in Morayshire.

The 32-year-old insists Thursday’s ruling by an independent tribunal appointed by the National Anti-Doping Panel, was “so overtly wrong that offends against fairness and justice.”

What the Scot might have seen as a white lie, told when he forgot to update his 
whereabouts on UK Anti-Doping’s system, spiralled into a case which has probably ended his career.

The panel concluded that “the false account given by Mr Dry was conduct intended to ‘subvert the Doping Control process’ and was therefore tampering under the rules”.

The offence of tampering was infamously carried out at the 2016 Winter Olympics when Russian authorities surreptitiously swapped out tainted samples for clean ones through holes in walls

A previous appeal by Dry saw the ban overturned on the grounds that he was guilty only of stupidity and neglect.

However, UK Anti-Doping took the case to the tribunal, which re-instated the ban.

UK Anti-Doping rules, based on the code of the World Anti-Doping Agency, specify a mandatory four-year suspension for tampering of any kind. And UKAD’s Deputy Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Stacey Cross, said: “This case is a very clear example that athletes must conduct themselves with honesty during the anti-doping process, and what is at risk if they don’t.”

Frustratingly for Dry, the whole sorry affair could have been avoided without any punishment, had he come clean at the outset.

As a member of the “Domestic Testing Pool”, the 2016 Olympian could have missed up to six tests without incurring a penalty.

Instead, a report detailed that he responded to a letter about the missed test by stating he “went fishing as I regularly do but haven’t done for some time due to serious injury”.

That was backed up in a statement from his partner Leah but, when investigators began enquiries, Dray admitted: “I panicked and said I was out fishing. I did not want to have a strike against my fully clean record and so opted for what I now know was completely the wrong decision.”

The lie has proven costly with Dry, who has repeatedly spoken out against doping within throws events, now finding himself barred until September 2023. It is particularly distressing for Dry that he will end up serving a longer ban than some athletes who have actually been convicted of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Dry said: “How can they equate me with someone who injects steroids or someone who constantly lies and tries to obstruct authorities?

“Other athletes lie publicly, they change their stories and they are ok to continue with the sport. Why are they persecuting me in this manner?

“I would like to receive some answers to these questions.

“I have given most of my life and all of my heart to this sport and have represented my country with pride and honour. I don’t do this for the money, that must be abundantly clear in the climate of our sport, but for the love and the passion and the desire this sport has given me to be better and lead others. I have been a life-long fighter of doping in sport and would never do anything to intentionally harm my own reputation.”

Dry is a popular figure within athletics and most would argue the punishment does not remotely fit the crime. One senior figure within UK Athletics said: “most people would have sympathy”. And while the written ruling from the panel insisted Dry was “foolish in the extreme”, it added “we share the unhappiness of the Tribunal… that this gave rise to a four-year ban.”

Dry’s only possible route to overturn his suspension would be an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. However, he would have to be re-classified as a “designated international athlete” rather than a “national athlete” for that door to be open.

His advisors are now considering all options. “This decision is unfair and wrong,” he added. “I am innocent and I will continue fighting to clear my name.”