Sport - Tennis

ATP on back foot in drugs revelation

By John Parsons

LONDON JULY 10. Seven male tennis players have tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. However, they have now been exonerated after the Association of Tennis Professionals embarrassingly revealed it was their own trainers who had inadvertently been handing out the black-listed drug.

Mark Miles, the ATP's chief executive, said: "Mistakes happen and this is a significant one. It was an unfortunate set of circumstances.''

During the 10 years of the tennis anti-doping programme, there have been only two positive cases from more than 5,000 tests, so officials became alarmed when between late August 2002 and May this year, a spate of cases were reported.

Samples from seven different players, including Bohdan Ulihrach, the Czech Republic Davis Cup player, registered above the International Olympic Committee's permitted level and another 36 showed traces of nandralone metabolites below the cut-off.

Ulihrach, who was tested during the ATP tournament in Moscow last October, was suspended in May for two years dating back to the time of the offence. He has now been cleared after an appeal tribunal heard about the new evidence.

There is bound to be criticism from other sporting bodies that the ATP have taken it upon themselves to deal with the situation instead of sending the whole matter to Sports Court of Arbitration.

The International Tennis Federation, who deal with offences involving Grand Slam tournaments and Davis Cup matches, are furious that this has not happened because without that it is bound to spark renewed allegations that tennis does not take drug testing as seriously as other sporting bodies.

Once a rash of positive tests became evident, bewildered ATP officials immediately called in Richard Young, a leading anti-doping expert to investigate.

His findings revealed that despite the ATP's repeated warnings to players about the potential risk of contamination of supplements, ATP trainers had been dispensing several vitamin and other nutritional products used to offset excessive and potential dangerous loss of fluids.— Copyright, Telegraph Group, London 2003

AP reports from New York: ATP Tour trainers will no longer dispense electrolyte tablets or other vitamins and minerals to players. Tour officials made the immediate policy change on Wednesday.

The ATP became aware of the possibility that it was mistakenly giving out contaminated products in May, when an unidentified player tested positive for nandrolone and said he was only using ATP-provided electrolyte tablets that help avoid dehydration.

Until that allegation, tour officials were unaware that their trainers were making electrolytes available to players.

Ulihrach happy

All penalties against Ulihrach were dismissed, and he is immediately eligible to play professional tournaments.

``I am extremely pleased that this episode in my life is now behind me so I can return to doing what I love to do most: play tennis,'' said Ulihrach, a winner of three singles titles and more than $3 million in prize money during his career.

"Wake-up call"

AFP reports from Sydney: The Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA) says the ATP's doping scandal was a ``big wake-up call'' for other sporting bodies and elite athletes.

ASDA chief executive John Mendoza warned sports worldwide to take heed of the ATP's doping scandal.

Mendoza described the ATP bombshell as ``a big, big wake-up call'' for other sporting bodies and elite athletes.

``There's a message there,'' Mendoza said. ``I am quite certain that there would be other sports, other institutes around the world, that have not been assessing this risk and putting in place the appropriate strategies. And they'll be taking up on the ATP experiences very quickly, I would think."

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