[alnorth]

Chief says Braun wouldn’t have been cleared under WADA code

MONTREAL — The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency says the protocol breach that helped NL MVP Ryan Braun win his doping case would not have yielded the same result in a case that adhered to WADA rules.

Braun’s positive drug test was overturned by an arbitrator who ruled that a two-day delay in delivering his urine sample was a violation of baseball’s drug agreement.

David Howman, the director general of WADA, said in a statement Friday that in a case following WADA code, “the athlete would have to show that the departure from the rule caused the adverse finding. That is not the situation in this case.”

He said the “very experienced” director of the anti-doping lab in Montreal gave evidence that Braun’s sample had not been compromised or tampered with.