Puerta banned for eight years

TENNIS: The career of Argentina's Mariano Puerta lay in tatters yesterday when he was banned for a record eight years after a positive drugs test.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said its independent anti-doping tribunal had ruled that Puerta (27) tested positive for the banned stimulant etilefrine after his French Open final defeat by Spain's Rafael Nadal in June.

In a statement on their official website, the ITF said they were imposing an eight-year suspension from June 5th this year, in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code.

No tennis player has been banned for more than two years.

It was Puerta's second doping offence, and the unprecedented length of the ban effectively ends his career, although it fell short of the lifetime ban that could have been imposed under the rules.

Puerta served a nine-month ban after testing positive for the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol in 2003.

"The tribunal determined that Mr Puerta's analytical positive result was caused by an inadvertent administration of etilefrine," the ITF said.

In a statement issued through his solicitors, Puerta said: "My position has always been that I did not deliberately or knowingly ingest any prohibited substances.

"I will, of course, be considering an appeal with my lawyers, but no decision will be taken until the New Year."

He has three weeks to decide if he wants to appeal to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

The ITF said Puerta's results at Roland Garros would be disqualified and he would forfeit the ranking points and €440,000 prize he won in the singles and the €3,282 he won in the doubles.

In addition, all results achieved by Puerta since the French Open will be disqualified and he will lose the entry ranking points and prize money gained in those events.

France's L'Equipe newspaper reported in October that Puerta had returned a positive test after traces of etilefrine were found in his urine after the Roland Garros final against Nadal, which Puerta lost 6-7 6-3 6-1 7-5. At the time Puerta said there was no truth in the report.

The French tennis federation (FFT) said in a statement yesterday: "The FFT welcome that the rules mentioned in the anti-doping programme of the ITF have been implemented by the court, which was dealing with a case of second offence."

Wada president Dick Pound acclaimed the banning of Puerta as a big step forward for tennis.

"We were always worried about the secrecy and apparent laxity of the testing programmes when the responsibility was in the hands of the players' association (ATP)," he said. "Somebody who has tested positive twice in less than two years is someone who clearly doesn't think the rules apply to them," Pound added.

"It is a big, big step forward. We're very pleased and we will keep working with the ITF to help them make their sport even cleaner."

The ATP decided in October to hand over all responsibility for drug testing to the ITF.

Last year, British number two Greg Rusedski was cleared of taking drugs despite a positive test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone after an ATP tribunal ruled he had taken the drug inadvertently in pills handed out by trainers.

Czech Bohdan Ulihrach was also exonerated by a tribunal after he had originally been banned for two years.

Ulihrach was one of seven players to test positive for a metabolite of nandrolone, while a further 36 had elevated levels in samples conducted between August 2002 and May 2003.

Last year US sprinter Michelle Collins was also banned for eight years for using a cocktail of drugs, including the designer steroid THG. The ban, which followed a federal investigation into the Balco laboratory in California, was halved after Collins agreed to drop an appeal to Cas.