By John Haughey BBC Sport

Gareth Turnbull will aim to get back in the Irish vest

"I got a phone call from a southern number and I was actually expecting to be told that I had been picked on the (Irish) European Cup team, so I answered it right away.

"I didn't expect to hear that I'd been charged with a doping offence that had taken place in September of last year," recalls the Belfast athlete.

Since then, Turnbull's life has revolved around somehow fitting his training in and around countless meetings with legal advisers, scientific experts, athletes and other people, whom he believed might prove beneficial to his case.

Close to �100,000 has been spent putting together Turnbull's defence and while Friday's verdict is a victory, the fight is not over for the athlete with him determined to recoup the financial costs involved in the case.

"There's no template for dealing with what myself, more importantly my family and my friends, have had to go through.

"You see so many cases, unfortunately, of doping in athletics and you hear people rolling out the traditional phrases of 'I've never knowingly take anything' or 'this is all rubbish' and you are thinking, 'why do they say that....it's such a cliche'.

"But in actual fact, those are the first things you want to say when something like this happens."

There's just a really strong sense of outrage that a system that you put your faith in can be so vindictive Gareth Turnbull

The 27-year-old's says Friday's "total vindication" doesn't take away his huge sense of anger at the way that the Irish Sports Council and Athletics Ireland conducted his case.

"If I'm completely honest, relief is only a small part of it because relief would suggest that I have 'got off' as such.

"But I haven't 'got off' because I haven't done anything wrong. There's just a really strong sense, without trying to be too strong about it, of outrage that a system that you put your faith in can be so vindictive as to chase after you for nine months without your knowledge.

"Then there's the three months of taking the thing to the highest levels in terms of the courts and pursuing it with an extreme zealousness and trying to get you put you away and end your career."

Turnbull says the "completely unprofessional" Irish Sports Council had numerous opportunities to call a halt to the case, and save many people a lot of embarrassment.

From Turnbull's point of view, the smoking gun in the case is probably a letter the IAAF's anti-doping chief Gabrielle Dolle sent to the manager of Irish Sports Council's anti-doping unit Una May last October.

Dolle had noted that the Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) test done on Turnbull's sample had been "inconclusive" on whether non-naturally occurring (exogenous) testosterone had been present.

A further IRMS done in Turin in March of this year produced a negative result which indicated no exogenous testosterone in Turnbull's sample.

In Dolle's letter dated 24 October, he appears to suggest that the case should not be taken any further but suggests that the authorities should note the results in terms of Turnbull's future drugs tests.

A wealth of documentation arrived at my door on 12 June and I was given 48 hours to respond Gareth Turnbull

"We have registered the adverse finding and taken good note of the IRMS result," says Dolle.

"However, in order to effectively close the file at the IAAF, we need to complete it with the athlete's identity, therefore could you please provide us with a copy of the Doping Control Form.

"Indeed, we nominatively register the athletes found to have an elevated T/E (testosterone) not concluded as positive to cross check any eventual forthcoming result accordingly."

Arising from Dolle's comment and Friday's outcome, Turnbull says that "it's not too strong to describe the case against me as a witch-hunt."

"Especially, when you consider that a wealth of documentation arrived at my door on 12 June and I was given 48 hours to respond," says the 27-year-old.

"We have spent the last three months trying to get the best legal representation and happily, today shows that were were right all along."

During the two-day doping hearing in July, the Irish Sports Council acknowledged that it had broken its own anti-doping code in failing to inform Turnbull for nine months, although it insisted this hadn't materially affected the case.

In response, Turnbull's legal team pointed out that elevated levels of testosterone can indicate a serious health problem and they also argued that the time lag affected the athlete's ability to conduct a strong defence.

Irish athlete Mark Carroll was a character witness for Turnbull

As regards the basis of Turnbull's defence, he was able to satisfy the adjudicating panel that a larger than normal alcohol intake had raised his testosterone levels.

"I'm an athlete who runs for 50 weeks of the year and who doesn't run for only two weeks," says the 27-year-old.

"The test in question took place on the last day of my break. I'd been on holiday for a week and half and the night before I was out socialising and had a couple of beers as well. That's not a crime."

Turnbull also pointed out that the reading from the test (5.8 to 1) would not have registered as a positive until 2005 when the legal ratio was reduced from 6:1 to 4:1.

As regards his athletics future, Turnbull says the episode will "channel me to try and knuckle down even more".

"It's been a case of when I've been fit, which hasn't been too often in my career, things have gone well.

"This has told me just what the sport means to me. I've had a long time to think about the implications of what would have happened if it had gone against me."

Turnbull acknowledges that the affair leaves a stain on his reputation, which may linger for the remainder of his career.

"There will always be that element of people who don't know the ins and the outs of the case who will say 'there's no smoke without fire'.

"But without being too cliched, I know, my family knows and more importantly, the people and athletes who all have been fantastically supportive all through this, know the truth".