Henin supports provisional doping ban
MELBOURNE: World No 1 Justine Henin on Wednesday backed moves to provisionally suspend players found guilty of doping in order to cut the time between a positive test and the announcement of penalties.
Tennis authorities are considering the move following the Martina Hingis case, where the former world No 1 tested positive for cocaine at Wimbledon in July, but it only became public in November when she revealed the results.
Hingis was handed a two-year suspension when an appeal failed earlier this month.
Henin said the current system meant there were long delays after a positive test, declaring "it would be better for everyone if it could go faster".
She was in favour of suspending players who tested positive immediately.
"I think as soon as you are tested positive you should be suspended at that time," she said.
WTA Tour chief executive Larry Scott said this week that provisional suspensions could be in place as early as 2009.
Currently, once A and B samples have tested positive, nothing further occurs until after a doping tribunal hearing, which can take months.
Scott said there were concerns a player could be provisionally suspended then subsequently cleared, but authorities believed the current system needed to be faster.
"There's a trade-off between speed and fairness, due process and just the abundance of caution you want to take in dealing with matters that can ruin a player's reputation," Scott said.
AFP
(China Daily 01/17/2008 page24)
