It is now accepted that Mr. Farmer had not previously received any written warnings and this statement was factually inaccurate. It is also accepted that the announcement was made prior to an investigation having taken place into any alleged disciplinary breaches by Mr. Farmer and that in those circumstances the announcement could have affected the fairness and impartiality of any disciplinary process. Wales Weightlifting, in making the announcement in the way that it did, acted contrary to the provisions of our own Disciplinary Policy, for which we apologise.

Wales Weightlifting accept that it was not open to us to suspend Mr. Farmer based on the allegations that had been made, that in doing so we acted contrary to our Disciplinary Policy and were wrong to publish the fact of suspension on our website. On the basis that we were not entitled to suspend Mr. Farmer, we accept that we were also not entitled to deselect him from the Commonwealth Championships team.

Lessons have and will continue to be learnt from the failings in the way that our Disciplinary Policy was applied in this case, and we will strive to do much better in future. We will ensure that our staff and Board members are fully aware of the provisions of the Disciplinary Policy and will ensure that it is applied correctly in any future proceedings.

We take this opportunity to apologise to Mr. Farmer for the failings exhibited.