FRT does not suspend Simona Halep

The acting president of the Romanian Tennis Federation, George Cosac, declared that he excludes the option of voluntary doping in the case of the player Simona Halep, who tested positive for the substance roxadustat.

“Far from me thinking that Simona could do something like that, especially since she had a brilliant career based on work. During the period when Simona started her ascent and was beating all the stars who dominated world tennis, she was checked about 20 times a year. So it is unlikely that anyone would think that at her level she could dope. She has always been a sportswoman who played fair and won. I exclude the possibility of doping’, declared Cosac.

The FRT official stated that until there is a second test, the federation cannot make a decision regarding the athlete’s suspension.

“From my point of view, the situation is not clear. Until the second evidence appears, until it is verified, to see exactly what happened, we cannot make a decision or a definitive decision’, added Cosac.

He drew a parallel with another case of doping, that of Laura Coman, who tested positive for a substance, which later proved to be in the athlete’s body in a much too small amount to be considered doping.

“Three to four years ago, when I was president of the Dinamo club, the information that Laura Coman, our great shooting champion, had been caught doping somewhere in South America, fell like a bolt of lightning. And in the end they found out that it was food, what she had eaten, a T-bone that was contaminated. The amount was tiny, it was not a very large amount that would influence performance. I think that there is something similar with Simona’, said George Cosac.

The best Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, announced, on Friday, on Instagram, that she was tested positive in an anti-doping control, for the substance roxadustat.

“Today begins the most difficult match of my life: a fight for the truth. I was notified that I tested positive for a substance called Roxadustat, in an extremely small amount, which came as the biggest shock of my life,” wrote Halep, former world leader, in the mentioned social network.

“Throughout my career, the idea of ​​cheating has never once crossed my mind and it is totally against the values ​​I was brought up with. Faced with such an unfair situation, I feel confused and betrayed. I will fight until the end to prove that I did not knowingly take the banned substance and I trust that sooner or later the truth will come out”, said Halep.

Simona Halep, the winner of two Grand Slam titles, at Roland Garros (2018) and Wimbledon (2019), emphasized that in this case it is not about titles and money, but about her honor: “It is not about titles or money . It’s about the honor and the love I’ve acquired for the game of tennis over the last 25 years.”

“Simona Halep, a 31-year-old Romanian tennis player, has been provisionally suspended according to article 7.12.1 of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP)”, the Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Friday.

“The sample was split in two and the subsequent analysis contained FG-4592 (Roxadustat), which is on the 2022 list of prohibited substances of the World Anti-Doping Agency (AMA/WADA)”, mentioned ITIA, stating that the presence of the substance was confirmed during the counter-expertise .

Halep, who currently ranks 9th in the world ranking, was tested positive at the US Open, according to APA, the Romanian being defeated in the first round in New York by the Ukrainian Daria Snigur, 6-2, 0-6, 6-4.

Cătălin Donose

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