LEIGHTON LEVY, STAR Writer

The case of Traves Smikle versus the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCo) is to be heard before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Toronto, Canada, on June 4, almost two years after the athlete tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) at the National Championships in June 2013.

The CAS date comes about a year since the athlete was officially banned.

Smikle will be represented at CAS by Dr Emir Crowne, Bryan McCutcheon and Miganoush Megardichian.

Crowne, who represented Smikle at his appeal hearing in February, said the process should be over relatively quickly.

"We expect the hearing will last one full

day and ... I am cautiously optimistic of Smikle's chances to receive the justice he's deserved for nearly two years now," Crowne said.

Smikle has never wavered in his stance that he never knowingly took any prohibited substance.

He had submitted three partial urine samples, as he was unable to provide the required amount when he was tested after competition at the national championships to select Jamaica's team to the IAAF World Champion-ships in Moscow, Russia.

Those samples were delivered into the same sample-collection container in breach of International Testing Standards.

Nonetheless, a Jamaica Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel comprised of Kent Pantry, Juliet Cuthbert and Dr Irvin Crandon banned the athlete for two years in June 2014.

Smikle appealed the ban in February before Tribunal of Justice Howard Cooke, Justice Algermon Smith, Dr Charlesworth Roberts, and Edith Allen, who ruled the athlete

did not do enough to have the ban reduced or overturned.

However, CAS formalised an oral stay of the ban in February. The stay was granted on February 12, following a submission made by Smikle's attorney, the same day the Anti-Doping Tribunal in Kingston ruled that his appeal for a reduction of the ban failed.

The stay allowed the athlete to train and compete in preparation for the national championships in June.

He competed at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia last weekend.