sydunisportsmed
09-08-2005, 12:18 PM
Tennis looks to be getting very tough on drugs, although this one looks over the top. Two years for a diuretic seems very strict, when this drug is not performance enhancing.
On the other hand 4 Argentinian players have tested positive in the last 12 months, the other 3 for anabolic agents, so perhaps there was an attempt here to flush an anabolic agent out of the system.
However, a diuretic itself is only going to be counterproductive in tennis. If it was a case of inadvertent doping, then 2 years is a terrible penalty.
NB Shane Warne copped 12 months for use of a diuretic, which was seen as being more a suspension for stupidity than due to the seriousness of this drug, i.e. he admitted taking it but for weight loss and appearance.
From Fox Sports:
Argentinean star tests positive
From correspondents in Paris
August 9, 2005
WORLD No.10 Guillermo Canas of Argentina has been banned for two years for doping, the ATP announced today.
The 27-year-old tested positive for the prohibited diuretic hydrochlorothiazide at Acapulco, Mexico in February, where the Argentinean was beaten by Spain's Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals.
He must repay $US276,070 ($359,794) in prize money and forfeit 525 singles and 95 doubles ranking points as part of the sanction.
Canas, who will be eligible to return to competition on June 11, 2007, becomes the fourth Argentinean to fall foul of doping tests after Juan Ignacio Chela, Guillermo Coria, who reached the final of Roland Garros in 2004, and this year's French Open finalist Mariano Puerta.
Chela was suspended for three months in 2001 after testing positive to a steroid methyltestosterone.
Coria, who was suspended for seven months in 2002 for nandrolone, blamed contaminated vitamins for his positive test.
Puerta was suspended for nine months in October 2003 after testing positive for an anabolic steroid at a tournament in Chile.
Canas had insisted he was "innocent" and "shocked" by the investigation undertaken by the men's professional tennis players' association.
Canas, who has won six titles in his career including three last year in Shanghai, Stuttgart and Umag, reached the quarter-finals of the French Open this year but later pulled out of Wimbledon.
"I am a professional player and it's difficult to know what happened. But the truth is this: we don't know what happened," said Canas.
Agence France-Presse
On the other hand 4 Argentinian players have tested positive in the last 12 months, the other 3 for anabolic agents, so perhaps there was an attempt here to flush an anabolic agent out of the system.
However, a diuretic itself is only going to be counterproductive in tennis. If it was a case of inadvertent doping, then 2 years is a terrible penalty.
NB Shane Warne copped 12 months for use of a diuretic, which was seen as being more a suspension for stupidity than due to the seriousness of this drug, i.e. he admitted taking it but for weight loss and appearance.
From Fox Sports:
Argentinean star tests positive
From correspondents in Paris
August 9, 2005
WORLD No.10 Guillermo Canas of Argentina has been banned for two years for doping, the ATP announced today.
The 27-year-old tested positive for the prohibited diuretic hydrochlorothiazide at Acapulco, Mexico in February, where the Argentinean was beaten by Spain's Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals.
He must repay $US276,070 ($359,794) in prize money and forfeit 525 singles and 95 doubles ranking points as part of the sanction.
Canas, who will be eligible to return to competition on June 11, 2007, becomes the fourth Argentinean to fall foul of doping tests after Juan Ignacio Chela, Guillermo Coria, who reached the final of Roland Garros in 2004, and this year's French Open finalist Mariano Puerta.
Chela was suspended for three months in 2001 after testing positive to a steroid methyltestosterone.
Coria, who was suspended for seven months in 2002 for nandrolone, blamed contaminated vitamins for his positive test.
Puerta was suspended for nine months in October 2003 after testing positive for an anabolic steroid at a tournament in Chile.
Canas had insisted he was "innocent" and "shocked" by the investigation undertaken by the men's professional tennis players' association.
Canas, who has won six titles in his career including three last year in Shanghai, Stuttgart and Umag, reached the quarter-finals of the French Open this year but later pulled out of Wimbledon.
"I am a professional player and it's difficult to know what happened. But the truth is this: we don't know what happened," said Canas.
Agence France-Presse