French team disqualified from WEG

French event rider Maxime Livio has been disqualified from last summer’s FEI World Equestrian Games, after his horse tested positive for a banned substance.

Disqualified

Not only does Livio lose his individual fifth placing, the entire French eventing team has also been disqualified.

France had just missed out on an eventing team medal at last summer’s Games, coming fourth. They had originally secured qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympics, but they have now lost their qualifying spot.

The Canadian team has now received the qualifying spot after moving up one place from seventh to sixth.

Positive test

Livio’s ride Qalao des Mers testedpositive for Hydroxyethylpromazine sulfoxide, a metabolite of the sedative Acepromazine.

Acepromazine is classified as a ‘Controlled Medication substance’ on the FEI Prohibited Substances List. These are substances that are regularly used to treat horses but are not allowed in competition, in order to maintain a level playing field.

Testing

There was random testing of horses competing at the World Equestrian Games, as well as compulsory testing of all individual medal winners.

Samples taken on 29 August 2014 from Qalao des Mers returned positive, while an endurance horse -Tra Flama, ridden by Giliese de Villiers (RSA) – tested positive for bute.

“We carried out an intensive awareness campaign prior to the Games and also offered pre-arrival testing to all participants, so it is very disappointing that we have two positives for Controlled Medication substances at the Games, especially when it is well known and well accepted that both these substances are not permitted in competition,” said a statement from the thenFEI Secretary General (now FEI President) Ingmar De Vos at the time.”Although these are Controlled Medication not doping substances, we take this very seriously.”

Second case dropped

A second case involving Maxime Livio was dropped by the FEI earlier this month when the B sample from Bingo S, a borrowed horse ridden by Livio at a showjumping event in Thailand last November, failed to confirm the initial positive result.

The FEI Tribunal ruled on the disqualification of Maxime Livio and the French Eventing team only, because of implications about the qualification process for Rio 2016. Afinal decision on further sanctions will be issued at a later stage.