Swimming: De Bruin will fight any ban says lawyer

THE TRIPLE Olympic swimming champion, Michelle De Bruin, will turn to arbitration or the courts to fight any allegations that she manipulated a drug sample, her lawyer said yesterday.

Peter Lennon said the case against the Irish swimmer should be dropped because Fina, the sport's governing body, did not report finding any banned drugs in her back-up urine sample.

Fina had said on Monday it was sending De Bruin's case to its doping panel for investigation after analysis of the B sample apparently showed the same signs of manipulation as her first specimen.

Lennon told Irish radio he had warned Fina that unless all charges were withdrawn, he would apply to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport for an injunction.

The samples allegedly contained a lethal concentration of alcohol.