Puerta Gets Doping Ban Reduced

Argentine tennis player Mariano Puerta had his record eight year ban reduced to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday. Initially, in 2005, Puerta was suspended for testing positive for the banned stimulant etilefrine after his French Open finals loss to Rafael Nadal. The CAS agreed with the Internation Tennis Federation's tribunal that Puerta had ingested the substance after mistakenly drinking out of a cup that contained his wife's medication for pre-menstrual tension. Another factor that contributed to Puerta's original eight-year ban was the fact that he tested positive for the anabolic substance clenbuterol in 2003 for which he received a nine-month suspension.

Source

• http://www.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/07/12/tennis.puerta.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Date

Wed 07/12/06, 12:50 pm EST