SPORTS

ATP tells players to ditch old supplements

By Matthew Cronin
March 13, 2004 12:43 IST

The ATP Tour has begun handing out leaflets at the Pacific Life Open warning players not to take any supplement that was handed out by the men's tour in the past.

The ATP will register when players receive the leaflet.

Briton Greg Rusedski was cleared of doping offences on Wednesday after a tribunal found the ruling body of men's tennis could have been responsible for his positive nandrolone test.

"In May 2003, the ATP ceased distribution of all nutritional, dietary and sports supplements for the reason that these products may have been contaminated with substances prohibited by the anti-doping programme," the leaflet said.

"The ATP warns players not to consume any nutritional, dietary or sports supplement (including electrolyte replacement tablets) that were recommended or distributed by any representative of the ATP."

ATP chief executive Mark Miles told Reuters it was the responsibility of the players to destroy the supplements or hand them to the ATP, who will do it for them.

"It's a way to insure that we are going to start with a clean slate," he said on Friday.

Miles said that players who now test above the legal limits of nandrolone should no longer be able to claim that it was the tour who gave them contaminated supplements.

Seven other men, including Czech player Bodhan Ulihrach, who was initially suspended for two years, were exonerated in 2003 after testing positive for nandrolone.

The ATP accepted last year that it may have unwittingly fed its players banned performance-enhancing substances.

 

Matthew Cronin

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