Christian Craig will be able to race the full 2020 Supercross and motocross season as his ban for failing a drug test is to be ended three months early on December 31.

“Most importantly, I NEVER have or would knowingly take a banned substance! The FIM has agreed that they do not believe I intentionally ingested the substance. Of course, that doesn’t take away from the fact it was there,” he said.

Craig was initially banned until March 2020 after failing a test at Daytona on March 10 2018, but was only banned on January 23 this year. Back then he said:

“The three person panel of judges, whom are appointed by the FIM, decided on a 2 year suspension from the testing date (March 10th, 2018). The two year suspension would mean I can no longer race until March 9th, 2020 and all results in between will be cleared.

“The FIM wanted the source of the trace amount of Heptaminol. It’s almost impossible to provide proof of source when they waited 10.5 months before notifying me- a delay they have not explained and have only offered an apology. Although the FIM have stated they don’t believe I intentionally ingested the substance, they argue I was negligent on ensuring everything that went into my body was examined by a medical doctor.

“I will be appealing FIM’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”

This week he went to the FIM in Switzerland with his wife Paige and has announced his appeal has been heard and he will be able to ride. He said: “I was asking for three months of my suspension to be lifted. I thought it was a long shot. I just got back from Switzerland at a hearing and it was agreed it would be done on December 31. I’m not sure of the reasoning but I felt like I had a good case. To get that news there, it felt like I won a championship.”

“Me and Paige both broke down in there. It was a lot of stress and pressure all it all was relieved. It’s all over and it couldn’t feel any better. I believe there should be drug testing and in future it should be done right.”