THE temporary lifting of the two-year ban on Jamaica’s men’s discus record-holder Traves Smikle by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has given his camp hope that he will get competition leading up to international competition later this year.

Last week, CAS upheld an appeal from Smikle for a temporary lifting of the two-year ban, freeing him to compete until a decision has been taken.

The IAAF World Championships will be held in August this year and the qualifying standard for the men’s discus throw is 65.00m. Additionally, there will be the World University Games in South Korea and the Pan-American Games in Canada in July.

In the interim, efforts are being made to find a meet for him to compete which would be his first since testing positive for the banned diuretic, Hydrochlorothiazide, at the National Trials in June 2013.

Dalton Myers, a spokesman for the thrower, told the Jamaica Observer that the absence of throwing events on the local track and field calendar had slowed his return, but they were hopeful that within the next two weeks he would be able to return to the competition ring.

Earlier this year, the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission’s Appeal Panel had turned down an appeal to lift the ban that will expire on July 25 this year, a month after the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) National Senior Trials in June.

Smikle was banned in June 2014 after he had failed a drug test while competing at the JAAA National Senior Championships at the National Stadium the previous year.

A sample he submitted was found to contain the banned drug Hydrochlorothiazide, but according to Myers, the 22-year-old who represented Jamaica at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, is maintaining his innocence.

Smikle set the national record of 57.12m while winning the discus throw event at the JAAA National Senior Trials in 2012.

Three years earlier, the former Calabar High student had created Jamaican track and field history when he won a bronze medal at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Brixen-Bressanone, Italy, the first time a Jamaican athlete was winning a medal in a throwing event at an IAAF level competition.