Ex-Georgia rugby captain Sharikadze gets 11-year ban after doping scandal

EX-GEORGIA RUGBY captain Merab Sharikadze has been banned from the sport for 11 years.

Five other Georgian players involved in the same doping scandal have been handed bans ranging from nine months to six years, while a Georgian official has been suspended for nine years for her part in the episode.

The sanctions come after a joint investigation by World Rugby and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) into a case involving the substitution of urine samples.

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The former players banned along with Sharikadze have been named as Giorgi Chkoidze [six years], Lasha Khmaladze [three years], Otar Lashkhi [three years], Miriani Modebadze [three years], and Lasha Lomidze [nine months].

Sharikadze, Khmaladze, and Lashkhi all featured for Georgia at the most recent World Cup in 2023, while Sharikadze and Modebadze were still playing for Georgia when they won the 2024 Rugby Europe Championship.

All six players have been banned for “use or attempted use of a prohibited method, tampering or attempted Tampering,” while Sharikadze and Khmaladze have also been sanctioned for “complicity or attempted complicity.”

Nutsa Shamatava, Georgia Rugby’s former chief medical officer, has been banned for nine years for “tampering or attempted tampering, complicity or attempted complicity.”

World Rugby said the investigation was launched when “irregularities in urine samples” were identified by its athlete passport management programme, covering an extended period of time before the 2023 World Cup.

WADA said that there were “five instances where sample substitution occurred” and also found that “advance notice of testing was being given to players from the Georgia national rugby union team by employees of the Georgian Anti-Doping Agency.”

The president of WADA, Witold Bańka, promised that this case would lead to further investigation deeper into Georgian sport.

“What has been happening in Georgian rugby is outrageous and will send shockwaves through Georgian sport and government, as well as the global game of rugby,” said Bańka.

WADA and the Georgia Rugby Union have been contacted for comment in relation to the sanctions, while World Rugby said a statement and full report on the matter will be published in the coming hours.