An arrest warrant has been issued for US cyclist Floyd Landis, accused of hacking into a French drug-testing laboratory, France’s anti-doping authority (AFLD) said on Monday.
Pierre Bordry, head of the AFLD, said Landis used documents “illegally hacked from the authority’s laboratory computer system” in his defense after he was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France win following a positive drugs test.
The warrant was issued by a French judge on Jan. 28 in response to the failure of 34-year-old Landis to answer a summons issued in October, Bordry said.
The judge intends to ask Pennsylvania-born Landis “to explain how he came to obtain certain information that was used in his defense,” Bordry said.
Arnie Baker, a former US rider and cycling coach, for whom an arrest warrant was issued in November, is also being sought by the French authorities in connection with the affair.
In an e-mail to the **Los Angles Times on Monday, Landis denied the hacking allegation. He told the newspaper no warrant had been served against him.
“I can’t speak for Arnie, but no attempt has been made to formally contact me,” Landis said in the e-mail. “It appears to be another case of fabricated evidence by a French lab who is still upset a United States citizen believed he should have the right to face his accusers and defend himself.”
Landis tested positive for testosterone during the 17th stage of the 2006 edition of the world’s most famous cycling race.
He had won that stage in spectacular fashion with a solo attack which virtually secured him the yellow jersey only 24 hours after a dramatic collapse on stage 16.
He was stripped of his Tour de France win in September 2007, more than a year after he crossed the finishing line on the Champs Elysee in Paris.
He was banned from racing for two years, making his return in January last year.
During that time he carried on the legal fight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sports highest appeal authority, who threw out his case in June 2008. Landis’ attempts to clear his name have cost the rider an estimated US$2 million.
The accusation of hacking first arose when the Paris suburbs-based AFLD lodged legal proceedings on November 7, 2006 after becoming aware that documents belonging to them had been used in Landis’ defense.
According to sources close to the inquiry the electronic paper trail led them to Baker’s computer address.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier