Churandy Martina, a native of Curacao, finished in second place in the finals of the Men’s 200 meter during the Olympic Games at Beijing. But, approximately one hour and a half after the official announcement of the results, officials informed that Churandy Martina was disqualified. The disqualification was based upon rule 163.3 of the 2008 edition of the Competition Rules of IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation).

 

After some investigation by the NAOC (Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee) it became quite clear that there were some mistakes made by the IAAF officials in Beijing.

 

According to the NAOC; “The rules state quite clearly that the written protest should have been entered within 30 minutes after the official result announcement. The alleged protest form quite clearly stated that it was entered after this timeframe. Other evidence even showed that in the past the IAAF quite clearly didn’t’ approve other similar cases.
One of these occurred during the IAAF World Championships 2007 (OSAKA). “

 

The NAOC decided to file a case at the ad-hoc Division of the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sports) at the Olympic Games, who decided to refer the dispute to the regular CAS procedure in Lausanne, Switzerland. Based upon the decision of the ad-hoc Division of the CAS, the NAOC filed on September 1, 2008 an appeal brief with the CAS stating the facts and legal arguments giving rise to the appeal. According to the CAS Arbitration Rules the Respondent, in this case the IAAF, needs to submit an answer to the CAS within twenty days from the receipt of the grounds for the appeal. Furthermore, a hearing has to be held for the examination of the parties, the witnesses and the experts, and for the oral arguments. If the CAS Panel is sufficiently informed it can also decide not to hold a hearing. A decision in this arbitration is expected at the end of this month.

 

NAOC is in this specific case international and national legally advised. Van de Laarschot & Associates is since May this year NAOC’s official legal advisor.

 

On the photo from left to right; Mr. Wendell Prince (Churandy Martina’s coach) and Churandy Martina during a pressconference after his disqualification.