Czech tennis hope Bartůňková has accepted a doping penalty – Sport.cz

After an investigation, the ITIA accepted the player’s explanation that the banned substance trimetazidine entered her body from a contaminated dietary supplement containing milk thistle. The group concluded that Bartůňková did not break the rules on purpose, that she is not at fault in the case and was not even guilty of negligence.

Bartůňková had stopped working since April 16. The young player, who had just moved up to 226th in the world rankings in April, tested positive at a tournament in February in Trnava and a month later in Maribor. She always denied the blame.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, I condemn doping. I’m happy to be back and playing games. It was a very difficult time. I’m glad we found the source of the contamination. Thank you to everyone who supported me and believed in me, I really appreciate it,” said the 488th player in the singles ranking in a family press statement. In the following days, player I. ČLTK Praha will start to return to full training.

ITIA said that Bartůňková told him at the end of October that she had identified a contaminated food item as the source of trimetazidine. The organization later relied on an analysis by a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratory in Utah, which confirmed the Prague native’s claims.

After an interview with Bartůňková, the ITIA then decided that the tennis player was not to blame for the doping detection. “Based on similar cases in the past and due to the nature of the substance and the circumstances surrounding the player, the ITIA recommended a six-month suspension for Bartůňková,” the ITIA said, adding that the player missed tennis results between the first positive test on 28 February and the temporary ban on 16 April.

The only exception was the 1st round match at the March tournament in Říčany, where Bartůňková submitted a negative sample. “The player accepted this penalty,” the agency concluded the case.

In the past, five Czech tennis players were punished for doping. Karel Nováček, Petr Korda and Bohdan Ulihrach, whose sentence was later suspended, Ivo Minář and recently in 2013 Barbora Strýcová.