SA heavyweight boxing champion Ruann Visser has been banned for four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, an SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport (Saids) official said on Thursday.

Visser tested positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol after winning the national crown on a seventh-round knockout over Osborn Machimana in February 2018.

Armed with a powerful legal team, Visser cast sufficient doubt on the chain of custody of his urine sample to have the case withdrawn.

“The athlete’s legal team filed an urgent application against Saids in the Cape high court to stymie the case from proceeding,” Saids said in a statement. 

“The case was postponed by the High Court and Mr Visser and Saids proceeded to an independent doping hearing panel to adjudicate the matter.  The hearing was held over three days in September 2018. 

“Following the hearing, the prosecution re-evaluated the testimony of its witnesses and experts and gave the athlete the ‘benefit of the doubt’ by withdrawing the charges. The panel acquitted Ruann Visser of the anti-doping rule violation.” 

But the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) appealed the outcome to CAS.

The matter was delayed as Visser’s lawyers took the matter to the Swiss federal court, where Caster Semenya’s appeal is being decided.

“Although Ruann Visser’s legal team challenged the appointment of the CAS arbitrator in Swiss Federal Tribunal Courts, they were not successful in preventing the case from being heard at CAS,” the Saids statement said. 

CAS banned Visser for four years.

“He has no further avenue for relief,” Saids CEO Khalid Galant said.

He explained the ban prohibited Visser from “competing, sparring, training in any organised boxing environment and also from participation in any other sport”.

Galant added that at the time of the positive test, Visser was provisionally suspended for a few months, and that period would be deducted from his four-year ban.

Since winning the SA title, Visser had six fights, winning five inside the distance and one on points.

Visser’s last scheduled fight, a defence against Tian Fick in Cape Town, didn’t materialise after he fell out the ring and injured himself when the top rope broke.

Boxing SA will have to decide whether to declare Visser’s belt vacant or give it back to Machimana, who since then has fought and lost against three international opponents, all of them inside the distance.