Swimming: Court win comes too late for Bray

By PAUL YANDALL and TERRY MADDAFORD

Swimmer Trent Bray may have cleared his name but he will never forgive those who shattered his Olympic dream.

The 27-year-old said his Court of Appeal victory had come too late to revive a competitive career, and too late for him to compete on this year's biggest swimming stage - the Sydney Olympics.

Yesterday the Court of Appeal upheld a district court ruling that the amount of time taken for Bray's urine sample to be tested was too long.

Bray became the first New Zealand athlete to test positive for nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid, when his sample was tested in January.

He said the victory had vindicated his claims of innocence, but he was saddened that the result had ruined his career.

"It's too late now. My international career was over with that result. I'm just glad I've seen it through and cleared my name."

He said he would not return to swimming while certain people, whom he claimed had ostracised him during his ordeal, organised the sport in New Zealand.

"It's been hell for me. All my sponsors dropped me, the Olympics slipped away. I don't think I can go back to swimming yet - not while some people are there."

He successfully challenged the Sports Drug Agency's testing procedures in the district court.

The agency later won its appeal to the High Court, before the Court of Appeal upheld the district court's findings.

Bray's lawyer, Peter Thorp, said the two-week period the urine sample was left unfrozen at Sydney Airport was unacceptable and could have led to the positive test.

Research had shown that traces of nandrolone could be generated in a clean sample, under certain circumstances, if the sample was left to degrade.

The sample was taken in New Zealand on November 22, flown to Sydney Airport on November 25 and left unfrozen until it went into the laboratory 14 days later.

It was refrozen and tested on January 7.

Sports Drug Agency executive director, Graeme Steel, said he took heart that only the delay in having the sample tested was the basis for the decision.

"We believed what we did was correct and in the end it came down to virtually one word - delay." It was unlikely the agency would take the case any further.

Bray said he had spent up to $70,000 trying to clear his name.

"The sad thing is that they still won't admit that they made a mistake. I fought this to make sure that they don't do the same thing to someone else."

Swimming New Zealand president Phil Pritchard said he had advised Fina, the international swimming body which suspended Bray, of the court's ruling.