Priinits never tested positive for anything, simply missed three scheduled tests.

At the beginning of the week, the EADSE imposed an 18-month competition ban on Sten Priinits, who competes in the épée category, for failing to be available for anti-doping tests on three separate occasions, and more specifically for not providing adequate information to the authority on his whereabouts.

Speaking to Vikerraadio show "Vikerrhommik" Wednesday, Vallimäe said: "When an athlete is not found at the designated location at the designated time, a report gets registered and written up. Evidence is included /.../, and all this evidence is presented to the office."

"We have a three-member doping review committee; we analyze the results. Then we notify the athlete, asking them to provide their explanation, within seven days," Vallimäe went on.

"Pursuant to these explanations, the same committee then decides on whether to record a violation. All this means that chalking up even one violation is quite a procedure," Vallimäe elaborated.

"If there is a second violation, and/or a third, the case is wrapped up and referred to as an allegation. We collate that allegation and send it off to the disciplinary committee, , which is a body independent from all of us, with the evidence and references to the articles of the regulations allegedly violated, and they then weigh the evidence. Where necessary, they ask for additional evidence and then make a decision," he added.

Priinits had failed to update his location information in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS)  testing database at the beginning of March, after which EADSE inspectors went to take a sample at the fencer's home in Tallinn; he was in fact competing in Budapest at that time.

A similar oversight was committed during the European Games, the first missed test chronologically speaking, while in the case of the second chronological violation, Priinits claimed to EADSE that he was sleeping at the time of the doping officer's arrival, thus he did not hear the officer's phone call.

The EADSE gave Priinits a chance to explain himself, but said he failed to convince the disciplinary committee of his innocence, after which he was offered the opportunity to plead guilty.

This would have resulted in a one-year competition ban. Priinits admitted his guilt in one of the three violations; the committee subsequently imposed an 18-month competition ban on him.

Margus Mugu  chair of the EADSE disciplinary committee, said that adherence to doping rules is first and foremost the responsibility of the athlete. "If you want to engage in sports at this level, well then you have to man up and stick to them. This is not too big of an ask," he said.

The sportsperson must also name a one-hour window of time in which they will be available, a window which can be changed right until the last minute – literally, in fact, or a minute ahead of the time window starting.

"At that point in time, he or she must make themselves available," Mugu added.

Henn Vallimäe stressed that Estonian anti-doping inspectors are of international caliber, whose professionalism cannot be doubted. "For the past three years or even more, our testers have been internationally accredited, and they hold International Testing Agency (ITA) licenses. They could go to the Olympic Games even tomorrow; we have had four testers qualified for the Olympics," Vallimäe said.

Vallimäe added that the EADSE has translated and adapted the international code of conduct, which provides testers with guidelines on how to reach an athlete. "On the other hand, it's the athlete's responsibility to know these rules. Yet here, the athlete has concocted the idea or claim that changes must be made 24 hours in advance, and cannot be made later than that. All athletes registered in the testing database are required to complete a WADA e-course, which explains in detail what they need to do."

Vallimäe said that in general, that the world of sports is actually quite clean of doping. "If we look at the statistics, the percentage of positive samples has dropped from about three percent at the Olympics over the last 10-15 years to 0.3 percent. A positive finding is a very rare thing and may not even necessarily constitute doping," he said.

Doping is quite a broad term which can include the introduction of illicit performance-enhancing drugs, and also the removal of a quantity of an athlete's blood, for it to be re-introduced shortly before competition.

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