Ibay Salas' doping ban is yet another development for the Spanish athlete after his lawyer, Jose Rodriguez, successfully convinced Madrid's 7th Court of Judicial Review that the UCI's biological passport is not a valid way to determine doping violations.

The former Burgos BH player was banned for four years in 2018 by the Spanish anti-doping authority AEPSAD for having abnormal passport values between January and August 2017.

In 2019, Salas won an appeal to the Spanish Administrative Court of Sport, which ruled that the biological passport was "insufficient to prove the commission of an offense" of the anti-doping rule.

WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which in August ruled that six blood samples provided by Salas were tested by a WADA-accredited laboratory in Barcelona and unanimously concluded that the values were "highly abnormal" and "likely doping," according to the anti-doping adjudicator The court sided with the The athlete stated that "there are no credible physiological or pathological reasons to explain the abnormality."

According to an Iusport report (opens in new tab), Salas' attorney, Jose Rodriguez, argued that "no substance or prohibited method was detected."

The court agreed to acquit Salas on the grounds that there was "insufficient evidence to satisfy the presumption of innocence."

The court wrote that while the biological passport justified further investigation "to gather evidence to prove an anti-doping rule violation," the abnormal value by itself could not be classified as an adverse finding.

WADA "reserves the right to review the full judgment and to appeal if appropriate."