Lisa Stublić-Nemec fights to clear her name.
Lisa Stublić-Nemec, a 31-year-old Croatian marathon runner, has been suspended for four years due to doping. The Croatian Olympian will not be able to take part in official competition until October 2019. She has the right to appeal against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. She has failed a doping test last October, ten days after a successful performance at the Berlin Marathon where she achieved great result which also meant that she had qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, reports Index.hr on February 2, 2016.
Lisa Stublić-Nemec is the best Croatian long-distance runner and holds a total of seven Croatian national records. She achieved her greatest success at the European Championships two years ago in Zurich when she finished fourth in the marathon race. She also competed at the Olympics in London in 2012 and the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, in 2011.
Following the news about suspension, Stublić-Nemec wrote a message to her fans on Facebook:
”I feel the need to write this post in order to tell you what has happened in the last few months. I cannot go into details, but here is what happened. Four weeks after the hearing, I was surprised to hear that a decision against me has been reached. First of all, I want to say that I am innocent. I even went to a polygraph to prove it. I am very disappointed because I did not get a fair hearing form the Croatian Institute for Toxicology and Anti-Doping. In addition to a lot of things, they did not allow me to defend myself by questioning the opposite party. They have also not given me any documentation which I have requested. This has violated my fundamental rights.
Of course, I will appeal against this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, where I will be given a truly independent hearing and where the Croatian Institute for Toxicology and Anti-Doping will have to explain their mistakes which were committed by their representative who took my sample. In addition, I have filed a criminal complaint related to this case. I am sorry that such things can happen in Croatia, since these are things which can endanger the reputation of Croatian athletics in the rest of the world.
Finally, I would like to thank all of you who support me. This will not discourage me. I will continue to fight and train”, wrote Lisa Stublić-Nemec on Facebook.
