Saturday January 10, 11:01 AM
ATP vows to enforce any punishment for Rusedski
PARIS (AFP) - The ATP vows it will enforce any punishment handed out to British tennis player Greg Rusedski but refused to comment specifically on his positive drug test.
The British number two will face an independent tribunal in Montreal on February 9 after admitting this week that he had tested positive for the steroid nandrolone at a tournament in Indianapolis last July.
Rusedski has protested his innocence and in his defence has pointed to the case of Czech player Bohdan Ulihrach.
Ulihrach also tested positive for nandrolone in October 2002 and was initially found guilty and banned for two years, but he was reinstated when it emerged that ATP trainers had been giving players mineral supplements, electrolytes and other supplements.
These supplements were thought to be the source of the positive tests and the ATP instructed trainers were told to stop supplying them.
But the ATP said while it could not comment on Rusedski's ongoing case, it suggested that comparisons with Ulihrach were not necessarily valid.
"During the period between August 2002 and May 2003, IOC-accredited laboratories in Montreal, Lausanne and Stockholm processed an unprecedented number of samples of ATP players registering trace amounts of the steroid nandrolone," said the statement from the body that runs men's professional tennis.
"These test results suggested ... a common source of nandrolone contamination."
An investigation "was unable to exclude the possibility that the contamination may have been an electrolyte supplement that the ATP's trainers provided to players."
But the statement added: "Since the ATP trainers stopped distributing vitamin and nutritional products in May 2003, the presence of nandrolone in test results has largely halted."
The ATP continued that in the last eight months, tests have revealed four cases of nandrolone on the men's circuit.
That is far lower than the 43 players in the top 120 that Rusedski claims had tested positive for elevated levels of nandrolone.
"Drug-taking is not rife in tennis and something here is very wrong," he said.
However the ATP said it would stand by the decision of the independent hearing which will hear Rusedski's explanation.
"The ATP will enforce the rules of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program, including enforcement of any penalties assessed against a player found by an independent anti-doping tribunal to have committed a doping offence."
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