Australian swimming champion Thomas Fraser-Holmes will appeal his 12-month ban after blaming a faulty app for missing a critical drug test.
Dual Olympian Fraser-Holmes has kept alive hopes of defending his 200m freestyle title at the 2018 Commonwealth Games despite being slapped with the ban on Wednesday night for missing three drug tests in a year.
Fraser-Holmes' lawyer Tim Fuller said they would appeal through the Court of Arbitration for Sport, claiming his client earned a second strike because the World Anti-Doping Agency's app wasn't working.
Athletes use WADA's Whereabouts app, which requires them to nominate their location for an hour-long period each day.
They must be available during this window for random drug tests carried out by agents from FINA or the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.
Fuller claimed Fraser-Holmes tried to change his whereabouts from the Gold Coast to Canberra while trialling new coaches in the national capital but couldn't log on, earning his second strike.
"He had a period of around five to eight days where he was unable to log on (via the app)," Fuller told Gold Coast Bulletin.
"And it was only discovered later through Swimming Australia assisting and through various communications with FINA that there was a component of that system that was turned off, so you couldn't log on to it.
"So he was every day trying to log his whereabouts.
"It's a really, really strict interpretation of negligence and we feel that the doping tribunal has erred and that's why we will be appealing to the CAS."
Fuller said Fraser-Holmes had returned more than 200 clean tests throughout his career.
Fraser-Holmes, 25, will hope to fight the ban which ends in June 2018 in a bid to contest the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, to be held in April next year.
Fraser-Holmes was sent home from a Swimming Australia training camp in Europe after world body FINA confirmed his 12 month ban.
"Swimming Australia is aware that the FINA doping panel have conducted a hearing regarding Thomas Fraser-Holmes' alleged whereabouts breaches and have announced a sanction of 12 months," a Swimming Australia statement said.
"We have been informed that Thomas Fraser-Holmes will be appealing the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as is his right.
"We have no further comments at this stage of the process."
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