THE Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) this week finally released the grounds for their dismissal of the case brought by Horse Sport Ireland and Olympic bronze medallist Cian O’Connor over the Aachen incident which effectively denied Ireland a chance to compete a show jumping team at the Rio Olympics.

The original dismissal decision of the Irish appeal was announced by CAS on January 4th 2016 and the Swiss-based body indicated that the grounds for that decision would follow in due course.

Following a 13-month period, the grounds for the decision were finally released by CAS this week.

The legal costs involved were not outlined.

In a 17-page document, the three-man panel of legal experts – Jeffrey Benz (USA), president; Prof. Philippe Sands QC (UK) and Nicholas Steward QC (UK) – adhered firmly to the key “field of play’’ sports principle in determining the Irish appeal.

The CAS panel said they should only interfere with sporting decisions made on the “field of play” where the person(s) involved provides evidence that the decision in question was “tainted by fraud, bad faith, bias, arbitrariness or corruption.”

The CAS panel found that was “clearly not the case” in this instance.

The CAS panel also referred to a long line of previous CAS case law including the incident at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games – ironically the same Games where Cian O’Connor and Waterford Crystal won gold and later lost it – when the lead runner in the marathon race was attacked by a spectator who ran onto the course.

The athlete in question won bronze and filed an unsuccessful appeal that the interference had cost him the gold medal.

The CAS panel ruled that: “This decision is of obvious relevance to this case.”

The CAS panel went on to state: “The only basis on which that decision (the Aachen Ground Jury decision) could be interfered with would be if there was evidence, which generally must be direct evidence, of bad faith ... there must be some evidence of preference for, or prejudice against, a particular team or individual.

“That is not even alleged here, let alone proven.

“Accordingly, the challenge to that decision must be rejected, even if the circumstances of this unhappy episode evoke a strong sympathy on the part of the Panel for Mr O’Connor and for Horse Sport Ireland.”

FACTS

Describing the facts in the case as “straightforward”, the CAS panel also said it did not make its determination lightly.

The CAS panel said it was: “Acutely conscious of the impact this decision will have on the career of Mr O’Connor and on the Irish team in depriving them of participation in the 2016 Olympic Games, in circumstances in which it appears that the event organisers may have been at fault in allowing a crew member to enter the course at such an inopportune and unfortunate moment.

“It is more than an understatement to record that the Panel is highly sympathetic to the circumstances in which Mr O’Connor found himself, faced with the unfortunate situation in which a crew member put himself in a place he should not have been.”

CRUCIAL HEARING

Several witnesses for both sides were heard at the crucial CAS hearing on December 16th 2015 in Lausanne, Switzerland, including Irish chef d’equipe Robert Splaine, James Tarrant, riders Darragh Kenny, Ben Maher, Cian O’Connor, Ulrich Kirchhoff on behalf of H.S.I., FEI legal director Mikael Rentsch and Stephen Ellenbreck, Ground Jury member in charge of the bell at Aachen.

AACHEN INCIDENT

AT the European Championships round two team final in Aachen on August 21st 2015, a member of the arena crew party, dressed in a bright yellow top, ran right across the path of Cian O’Connor’s top horse Good Luck. Up to that point, they were clear. The crowd made an audible reaction as the man threw himself into a flower bed to avoid being struck by Good Luck.

Cian and his horse were forced to take evasive action and a different path to the fence, No 11. Good Luck knocked the top pole for four faults in an otherwise clear round.

An appeal was immediately put in by the Irish squad in Aachen to the Ground Jury that they were “significantly distracted” by the incident.

This was rejected by the Ground Jury and O’Connor and Good Luck finished in 21st instead of 12th place. The Irish team finished in seventh place, 0.38 points behind Spain who ended up qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games instead of Ireland.