“Term can be reduced”: tennis player caught in doping, Demina, blames coach

Three years for meldonium on the advice of a trainer

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has launched an investigation against Russian coach Alexei Rozhnov for the words of tennis player Elizaveta Demina, who was disqualified for doping with whom she worked before.

At a tournament in Kazan last November, 20-year-old Demina tested positive for meldonium and was first temporarily suspended from competition in January and was soon disqualified for three years following the results of the trial for being found guilty. .

The athlete, whose disqualification period will expire on January 25, 2025, stated in an interview with Match TV recently that he bought the drug Mildronate, the main component of which is meldonium, on the recommendation of his trainer.

“The coach gave a lot of advice. Everyone knew he was making very good players. Two months before the tournament in Kazan he told me that I should take Mildronat, assured that all professional athletes drink it and show nothing. And if there is some kind of check, you need to drink a glass of champagne, and everything will be fine, ”said he.

– I started drinking Mildronate, said the coach – these pills are excreted from the body in two weeks. I did not check, I trusted their word, I did not think that they could give me bad advice. I drank it for ten days, at his request I took a large dose to make it work faster.

Recall that after Meldonium was included in the number of substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), many Russian athletes were disqualified for its use.

The loudest case in tennis and in general was the dismissal of Maria Sharapova, who had to miss a year of her career and could no longer return to her former level.

In addition, it turned out that during the study of meldonium it is excreted from the body for a very long time, and the time of release of the substance is different for different athletes.

As for Rozhnov, he categorically did not agree with the words of the former ward and said that he had slandered himself at the instigation of lawyers who were trying to reduce the time for disqualification.

“When the cases were over, my lawyer friend said that the only way to reduce the sentence was to decide what the coach gave. As he said, they did. I didn’t offer him anything. Why is this necessary? Mildronat was prescribed to him by a doctor in 2019. He even has a certificate for it. He drank,” the coach said.

After the fateful tournament in Kazan, Demina participated in another competition under the auspices of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), speaking in Giza. There, he lost in the decisive knockout match, but entered the main draw as the “lucky loser”, but still lost in the first round.

“RUSADA has to prove everything”

Sports lawyer Anna Antseliovich commented on the situation with the investigation against the socialbites.ca coach.

“In this case, the role of the coach will become clear. Did he help her with the doping, was she the one who started it? Did you think to put him to sleep? Maybe he approached him and asked if he could use the illegal drug and he agreed and bought it for him. Anceliovich believes these factors will determine the different circumstances of the coach’s disqualification.

– Now, the conditions for starting complicity and illicit drug use are about the same. Previously, there was much less punishment for complicity. A lot depends on the individual situation. Had Demina been a minor, she could have been disqualified for life for the staff.

However, she is 18, where the sanctions allow her to disqualify her for up to eight years. The time can be reduced only if he contributes, without resorting to active participation. Of course, RUSADA will have to prove all this. You can’t blame just one person.

A reduction in disqualification time may occur for the athlete himself. There is such a thing as important help. If it helps establish the coach’s guilt, then the ITF can reduce the disqualification based on RUSADA’s decision. The point here is not the degree of guilt of the athlete, but the fact that it helps to determine the fact of violation by the coach.

Russian tennis player Elizaveta Demina, who was banned for three years after a positive doping test, accused her coach Alexei Rozhnov for allegedly recommending her to take meldonium. The RUSADA expert is investigating, and lawyer Anna Antseliovich told Gazeta.ru that this could reduce the athlete’s sentence.



Source: Gazeta

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