Modahl damages case opens

Diane Modahl (right) with her manager and husband Vicente

The £1m damages claim by international athlete Diane Modahl against the British Athletic Federation opens before a High Court judge in London on Monday.

Modahl was given the go-ahead by the Court of Appeal in 1997 to sue the BAF, now in administration and superseded by UK Athletics, over the way she was treated during an investigation into drug-taking allegations.

Diane Modahl has accused the BAF of alleged bias

She was later banned from international sport for nearly a year before being cleared on appeal.

Modahl failed in legal bids for the right to sue on the additional grounds that the Lisbon laboratory which carried out her drug tests was not accredited by international athletics bodies and, therefore, the BAF should not have acted on its results.

The 34-year-old is seeking to recover the £480,000 she spent on legal and medical advice in challenging the four-year drugs ban imposed by the BAF after urine tests in Lisbon in 1994 allegedly showed a high level of testosterone.

The ban was eventually lifted by the International Amateur Athletic Federation after doubts were cast on the accuracy of the tests.

She is also seeking a similar figure in punitive damages over the way the case was handled by the BAF.

The hearing, before Mr Justice Douglas Brown, is set to last two weeks.