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30 May 2025
The ITA on behalf of the WKF confirms that Ali Sofuoğlu has been suspended with a two-year period of ineligibility for an ADRV under Article 2.4 of the WKF Anti-Doping Rules (WKF ADR).¹
Over the course of 2023, Ali Sofuoğlu committed three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period.
Following the results management process conducted by the ITA, upon request by the athlete, the ITA submitted the matter for adjudication to the First Instance Panel of the WKF (the Panel). After hearing the parties and considering the written submissions and evidence, on 31 March 2025 the Panel issued its operative award² holding that the athlete had committed an ADRV under Article 2.4 of the WKF ADR.
The Panel imposed a two-year period of ineligibility on Ali Sofuoğlu from 31 March 2025 until 30 March 2027 and the disqualification of all competitive results from 11 October 2023 onwards.
On 14 April 2025, Mr Sofuoğlu filed a request for Provisional Measures³ to the appeals division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) asking to stay the execution of the Panel’s decision of 31 March 2025. On 1 May 2025 CAS dismissed the athlete’s request and confirmed that the Panel’s decision would not be stayed. Therefore, the decision of the Panel is in force and the athlete is currently serving his period of ineligibility.
On 30 April 2025, the Panel provided the reasons for its decision on the ADRV committed by Mr Sofuoğlu.
Mr Sofuoğlu has filed an appeal against the Panel’s decision before the appeal division of CAS. The matter is ongoing, and ITA is representing the WKF before CAS.
¹ Athletes included in a Registered Testing Pool (RTP), such as Ali Sofuoğlu, 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 WKF ADR and World Anti-Doping Code. The consequences for such ADRV are a period of Ineligibility between one and two years (depending on the level of fault if the athlete) 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 WKF ADR).
² An operative award provides the conclusion of the panel without providing the detailed reasoning for arriving at such conclusion.
³ A provisional measure is a temporary remedy granted to a party to stop the execution of a first instance decision while the appeals process is ongoing.
