Show jumping saga to top agenda

THE International Equestrian Federation hierarchy will meet next week to discuss the fall-out from the Waterford Crystal affair, as the internal investigation at their Lausanne headquarters continues.

The 20 strong FEI Bureau comprising the organisation's President Bo Helander, members of the executive board, technical committees and regional groups will meet in Buenos Aires next Monday and Tuesday, when the Waterford Crystal issue is set to top the agenda. The news came as Cian O'Connor waited for results of the blood-B sample from the FEI's Equestrian Drug Testing and Research Laboratory in Ithaca, New York.

A spokesperson for the FEI said they could receive the results of the test today.

"We're waiting for the results," she said.

"If it's positive it will go to the Medication sub-committee and then it goes through the normal legal procedures.

"It will be in the next few days. If it's negative it will be quicker."

She said she would be "surprised" if, in the case of a negative test result, another competitor appealed the decision as no competitor had ever appealed a decision concerning someone else.

However, an Equestrian Federation of Ireland spokesman said he would be "surprised" if the result was made public before the end of the week. He also confirmed that the EFI had yet to receive written confirmation that the B sample was even in the Ithaca laboratory. As for the FEI Bureau meeting, he said it could "slow things further."

The Ithaca laboratory has a full 21 days within which to test the B sample, while any appeal process in the case of a 'negative' result would drag out the process further.

Andrew Coonan, solicitor for Cian O'Connor, said they were waiting for a call from their witnessing analyst in the US, Dr Laurent Bigler, to confirm that the test had been carried out on the sample. He said nobody from Cambridgeshire Constabulary had been in touch with him or his client in relation to the theft of the urine-B sample.