Andrea Baldini, an Italian fencer was given a retroactive six-month ban by the International Fencing Federation and was stripped of his team foil gold medal during the European Championships due to his testing positive for a banned drug last July in Ukraine for the European Championships. The Italian fencer Baldini however, can gladly return to sports when the World Cup resumes next month as his suspension ends.

The Banned Drug – Diuretic Furosemide

A few days before the Beijing Olympics started, Italian Baldini was taken off from his team after he tested positive for the banned drug – diuretic furosemide at the European Championships. Furosemide is used by some athletes as a weight loss drug. According to the Italian fencer Baldini, he had an antibiotic prescribed by the Italian federation’s doctor and he had declared it before the doping test. Andrea Baldini also suggested that he may have been a victim of a foul play but the Italian Olympic Committee dropped its inquiry into an alleged conspiracy plot last October.

During a meeting in Belfast, Ireland, the International Fencing Federation has decided to have Baldini banned retroactively from September 3th, the date when he was provisionally suspended up to March 3. The World Anti-Doping Agency had been the approving authority of the recommendations set by the federation. In a statement given out last Tuesday, the FIE Secretary-general Maxim Paramonov said that cases of the use of prohibited substances in their specific sports are extremely rare. Furthermore, the Secretary-general also said that it was absolutely unclear what could have made the Italian fencer, who is already ensured of his participation in the Olympics to use any banned substance during the competition without any relevance for him.

The penalty also allowed the athlete to return to the elite sport within a short period of time and try to demonstrate his outstanding talent in coming tournaments. With this decision, Baldini will also have to forfeit his gold medal from his team foil at the European Championships. The Italian fencer and his teammates Stefano Barrera, Andrea Cassara and Salvatore Sanzo where all strippedd off their win and their gold medals will be given to fencers Tomasz Ciepry, Rodaslaw Glonek, Michal Majewski and Slawomir Mocek of the Polish team.

Redistribution of the Monetary Prices

It was also noted that the Italian fencing federation had been pleased with the ruling which happened with the case of Andrea Baldini case as well as for the consideration that the Italian fencer had never failed a test previously or was ever been banned from joining the Olympics. And despite of the redistribution of the monetary prices, the federation was still very pleased with the outcome of the case.

Giorgio Scarso of the Italian Fencing Federation also announced that they are very much satisfied with the sentence given to Baldini, and that the federation had believed in the athlete’s good faith from the very start. Baldini will be joining next month’s World Cup resumption on a clean slate after having served his retroactive 6-month suspension.

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