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22 August 2025
The ITA reports that weightlifter Vanessa Sarno has agreed¹ to the consequences for her ADRV under Article 2.4 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules (IWF ADR).²
Vanessa Sarno committed three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period. The athlete did not challenge the ADRV and agreed with the consequences proposed by the ITA. Accordingly, the case was resolved via an acceptance of consequences.
The athlete’s period of ineligibility is from 4 August 2025 until 3 August 2027. Additionally, all the athlete’s individual competitive results from the date of commission of the ADRV (1 January 2025) until the start of the period of ineligibility are disqualified including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes.
The decision may be challenged before the appeal division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport by the parties with a right of appeal in accordance with Article 13.2.3 of the IWF ADR.
The ITA will not comment further on this case.
¹ Athletes have the right to choose not to have their case referred to a hearing panel. In these instances, the anti-doping organisation will assess the athlete’s case file and establish the applicable consequences pursuant to the anti-doping rules and the athlete will have the right to accept the proposed consequences. If the athlete refuses the proposed consequences, the case is transferred to a hearing panel. This resolution mechanism is provided for in articles 8.3.1 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules and 8.3 of the World Anti-Doping Code and is commonly referred to as an agreement on consequences and is deemed an IWF/ITA decision.
² Athletes included in a Registered Testing Pool (RTP), such as Vanessa Sarno, have the obligation to provide daily whereabouts as well as a specific daily 60-minute time slot where they will be available for testing. The purpose is to allow anti-doping organisations to locate athletes for unannounced out-of-competition testing. Any combination of three missed tests (which relate to the athletes’ unavailability with respect to their 60-minute time slot) and/or filing failures (which are caused by the athletes’ failure to provide accurate whereabouts) committed within a twelve-month period amount to an ADRV as per article 2.4 of the IWF ADR and World Anti-Doping Code. The consequences for such ADRV are a period of Ineligibility between one and two years and the disqualification of results obtained since the date of the ADRV, namely the date of the occurrence of third whereabouts failure (article 10.3.2 IWF ADR).
