Cian O'Connor's solicitor last night denied he had requested that the date and venue for a judicial hearing on the Waterford Crystal doping case be withheld from the press.
"I was most surprised to hear that I had supposedly requested the date and venue to be kept secret, as no such request has ever been made by me," Mr Andrew Coonan of Coonan Cawley Solicitors, Naas, Co Kildare, told The Irish Times last night.
"There is absolutely no advantage to be gained by this in circumstances where my client has always sought to be forthcoming with information and indeed published the findings of the New York results [when testing on the horse's B blood sample confirmed the presence of prohibited substances] well in advance of the FEI doing so.
"So to make such a request would be nonsensical."
The denial came following a statement from a source within the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) claiming that Mr Coonan had specifically requested secrecy on the date and venue for the hearing.
It is believed the suggestion to withhold the venue for the hearing from the press came from FEI secretary general Dr Bo Helander.
However Dr Helander, who was flying to Beijing yesterday, was unavailable for comment when contacted by The Irish Times.