Czech Nikola Bartunkova returns to tennis after 6 months ban for accidentally consuming trimetazidine

[vokazu]

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1150047/bartunkova-returns-the-court-after-ac

Bartunkova returns to tennis after accepting doping ban​

• By Javier Carro
• Friday, 15 November 2024

Czech Nikola Bartunkova, a former Wimbledon junior finalist, has been cleared to return to competition on the WTA Tour this week after accepting a six-month doping ban imposed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. The organisation confirmed that the substance was ingested unintentionally.
At 18 years old, the player tested positive for trimetazidine on two occasions: during an ITF W50 tournament held in February in Trnava, Slovakia, and the following month at an ITF W75 event in Maribor, Slovenia. The detected substance acts as a hormonal and metabolic modulator, enhancing physical performance and endurance.

Following a thorough investigation, the ITIA stated on Thursday that the positive trimetazidine tests were the result of contamination in a supplement containing milk thistle extract. It acknowledged that the violation was unintentional and that the player bore no significant fault or negligence.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1857030727356805382

Bartunkova was provisionally suspended in April after reaching a career-high singles ranking of 226 in the world. At that time, the ITIA sent her a pre-charge notice for an anti-doping rule violation, leading to her provisional suspension from that date.

On 27 October, the Czech player informed the ITIA that she had identified a contaminated supplement as the source of the trimetazidine found in her sample. The ITIA then directed an independent World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory for Sports Medicine Research and Testing to analyse the supplement. Based on the findings and Bartunkova's testimony, the ITIA confirmed the violation was not intentional.

This week, taking into account precedents from similar cases under the World Anti-Doping Code and considering the nature of the substance and the circumstances involving the player, the ITIA proposed a six-month suspension for Bartunkova, with credit given for the period already served under provisional suspension.

The ITIA further noted that the teenager's results between the first positive test in February and the commencement of her suspension in April have been disqualified, except for a first-round result at the W75 event held in March in Ricany, Czech Republic, where she returned a negative sample. Bartunkova accepted the sanction and has been cleared to return to competition as of Monday.

 

[vokazu]

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1145197/18-old-czech-tennis-talent-suspende

 

[TennisBro]

The detected substance acts as a hormonal and metabolic modulator, enhancing physical performance and endurance.

she should've hired a better scientific and legal team rather than just coaching one.

 

[Bartelby]

Six months would be the going rate for Sinner, at the very least.

 

[Better_Call_Raul]

Czech player informed the ITIA that she had identified a contaminated supplement as the source of the trimetazidine found in her sample. The ITIA then directed an independent World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory for Sports Medicine Research and Testing to analyse the supplement. Based on the findings and Bartunkova's testimony, the ITIA confirmed the violation was not intentional.


This case is practically identical to Iga's contaminated supplement case.
Yet this hapless Czech gets 6 months while #1 Iga gets 1 month off during Christmas.

 

[ollinger]

Difficult for me to accept this issue of contamination (of milk thiistle, no less!) causing one drug to piggy-back on another. Drug manufacture is nothing if not scrupulous about avoiding any contaminants, the detection of which often causes the pill manufacturing process to be shut down for weeks to resolve the issue. And why is an ostensibly healthy 18 year old taking milk, thistle, favored by health faddists concerned about liver disease?

 

[vokazu]

Czech player informed the ITIA that she had identified a contaminated supplement as the source of the trimetazidine found in her sample. The ITIA then directed an independent World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory for Sports Medicine Research and Testing to analyse the supplement. Based on the findings and Bartunkova's testimony, the ITIA confirmed the violation was not intentional.


This case is practically identical to Iga's contaminated supplement case.
Yet this hapless Czech gets 6 months while #1 Iga gets 1 month off during Christmas.

And Sinner gets no ban.

All of them should be banned at least 1 or 2 years.

 

[Bartelby]

In my opinion, there is not enough uniformity of punishment at the Independent Tribunal level. They need to review the whole system.

 

[Sudacafan]

The contamination of supplements must stop now! Labs are careless, they must be held accountable. Whenever a doping case is detected, the lab should be banned.
Leave the athletes alone!

If all doping cases involve contamination, I don't want to think about the likeliness of us, common people, consuming contaminated foods, beverages, medicine, etc. of any kind.
What happens if you take ibuprofen contaminated with paracetamol? Or an aspirin contaminated by an antiacid? Wine contaminated with orange juice?
Horrendous.

 

[insideguy]

Contamination everywhere! I think there are PEDs in everything! What a joke. This sport is freaking spiraling. And all the defenders of this stuff just trying to explain it to us peasants can go pound salt.

 

[Sudacafan]

Contamination everywhere! I think there are PEDs in everything! What a joke. This sport is freaking spiraling. And all the defenders of this stuff just trying to explain it to us peasants can go pound salt.

Your post is highly contaminated with incredulity.

 

[insideguy]

Difficult for me to accept this issue of contamination (of milk thiistle, no less!) causing one drug to piggy-back on another. Drug manufacture is nothing if not scrupulous about avoiding any contaminants, the detection of which often causes the pill manufacturing process to be shut down for weeks to resolve the issue. And why is an ostensibly healthy 18 year old taking milk, thistle, favored by health faddists concerned about liver disease?

It's really bugging me that they are casually just trying to use this excuse. I mean people are allergic to various things like aspirin or other medication. And basically these players are saying everything they use is contaminated. So these companies have to be super careful about this stuff. And not only contaminated but with PEDs. Come on. I mean these people are attempting to talk to everyone like they are freaking morons. Im done as a fan. Not because these guys are doping that aint a surprise. But the level of ******** here is just unbelievable. Im done.

 

[vokazu]

The contamination of supplements must stop now! Labs are careless, they must be held accountable. Whenever a doping case is detected, the lab should be banned.
Leave the athletes alone!

If all doping cases involve contamination, I don't want to think about the likeliness of us, common people, consuming contaminated foods, beverages, medicine, etc. of any kind.
What happens if you take ibuprofen contaminated with paracetamol? Or an aspirin contaminated by an antiacid? Wine contaminated with orange juice?
Horrendous.

Or athletes just need to be careful and stop taking pills or supplements.

Just eat and drink healthy organic food and drinks that are not contaminated with pesticides, hormones, steroid, cocaine, etc.

 

[Sudacafan]

And Sinner gets no ban.

All of them should be banned at least 1 or 2 years.

If in the end Sinner is not banned, I will write a long letter of protest.

 

[Sudacafan]

Or athletes just need to be careful and stop taking pills or supplements.

Just eat and drink healthy organic food and drinks that are not contaminated with pesticides, hormones, steroid, cocaine, etc.

Players should follow Djokovic's dietary habits.

 

[socallefty]

Does someone know why she got 6 months and Swiatek got a 1-month ban when in both cases it is accidental contamination as accepted by the drug testing agency? Is it because Swiatek is a star and she is not?

 

[Better_Call_Raul]

Or athletes just need to be careful and stop taking pills or supplements.

Just eat and drink healthy organic food and drinks that are not contaminated with pesticides, hormones, steroid, cocaine, etc.

91K views · 2.8K reactions | Novak Djokovic: Why I’m Plant-Based | Did you know that Novak Djokovic follows a plant-based diet? He also has been in the news this week for being denied entry to Australia, due to his... | By Plant Based News | Faceboo

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[Robert F]

Or athletes just need to be careful and stop taking pills or supplements.

Just eat and drink healthy organic food and drinks that are not contaminated with pesticides, hormones, steroid, cocaine, etc.

My guess if all supplements were banned substances for athletes, all of a sudden star player X who pops positive for zambonium will have eaten contaminated strawberries. "It was found that the strawberries she ate, although organically farmed, were next to a pharamceutical company that was testing zambonium on the pigs, and some of their feces mixed with the regular fertilizer." Hence player X was innocent and will get their ranking protected for the rest of the year due to the trauma of this contamination.

 

[Robert F]

Does someone know why she got 6 months and Swiatek got a 1-month ban when in both cases it is accidental contamination as accepted by the drug testing agency? Is it because Swiatek is a star and she is not?

I know that the athletes with more access to attorneys (money), can work quicker with the tribunal to prove their innocence. I think there is a 10 day window that after they are notified they can plead their case. In the past for players with less resources it has been difficult to get the ball rolling in 10 days. So I wonder if for Swiatek the found her innocent of intent and hence 1 month seemed adequate and with this player they eventually found her innocent of intent, granting her some time served which was closer to 6 months??

 

[Rovesciarete]

Does someone know why she got 6 months and Swiatek got a 1-month ban when in both cases it is accidental contamination as accepted by the drug testing agency? Is it because Swiatek is a star and she is not?

Obviously not and it is quite well explained in the relative cases. In short it is medicine vs supplement. Players are less negligent if their medicine is contaminated, as they can expect a higher level of quality control. Supplements are more of a choice and less strictly regulated, thus increasing the risk for the player.

Those guidelines are debatable and frankly the ruleset wasn’t developed for the ability to detect the tiniest of traces, but for now it is enforced this way.

Overall if you ignore roughly a dozen posters who couldn’t tell truth if hit by, you will me much better informed…

 

[Rovesciarete]

I know that the athletes with more access to attorneys (money), can work quicker with the tribunal to prove their innocence. I think there is a 10 day window that after they are notified they can plead their case. In the past for players with less resources it has been difficult to get the ball rolling in 10 days. So I wonder if for Swiatek the found her innocent of intent and hence 1 month seemed adequate and with this player they eventually found her innocent of intent, granting her some time served which was closer to 6 months??

If the Czech player found it hard to identify the source of her contamination, despite getting no reply from the producer you can imagine how ***** Battaglino was when he could not get hold of that Tunisian tournament physio for many months. You can be sceptical of his story, or Moore’s, but if you get tested while contaminated and the source is almost impossible to find or nail down you are truly screwed.

Wanda was imho at best significantly negligent by not adjusingt the ruleset to the new test sensitivity, for example by introducing thresholds. They will likely do so, but not before having done great harm to the sport and its athletes.

 

[vokazu]

Does someone know why she got 6 months and Swiatek got a 1-month ban when in both cases it is accidental contamination as accepted by the drug testing agency? Is it because Swiatek is a star and she is not?

Maybe because Swiatek has more money. You can buy anything these days.

 

[Robert F]

If the Czech player found it hard to identify the source of her contamination, despite getting no reply from the producer you can imagine how ***** Battaglino was when he could not get hold of that Tunisian tournament physio for many months. You can be sceptical of his story, or Moore’s, but if you get tested while contaminated and the source is almost impossible to find or nail down you are truly screwed.

Wanda was imho at best significantly negligent by not adjusingt the ruleset to the new test sensitivity, for example by introducing thresholds. They will likely do so, but not before having done great harm to the sport and its athletes.

When you say thresholds do you mean making the tests less sensitive so low levels don't return a positive test?
If we side with the athletes, they are all getting popped by contaminants, so no intent of misuse and no real benefits to the sport, so a higher threshold to consider one doping makes sense.

But if you do that, doesn't that allow people who are cycling or using masking agents to have a bigger margin of error? Hmm, now I can test positive for 0.5ng/mL of Russadonium, so I can run my cycle a little longer or use a higher dose and not worry as much about the masking agent?

 

[Rovesciarete]

When you say thresholds do you mean making the tests less sensitive so low levels don't return a positive test?
If we side with the athletes, they are all getting popped by contaminants, so no intent of misuse and no real benefits to the sport, so a higher threshold to consider one doping makes sense.

Agreed.

But if you do that, doesn't that allow people who are cycling or using masking agents to have a bigger margin of error? Hmm, now I can test positive for 0.5ng/mL of Russadonium, so I can run my cycle a little longer or use a higher dose and not worry as much about the masking agent?

This seems to be the worry of Wada, although I have yet to find good research concerning masking and microdosing confirming their fears. Maybe establishing a second threshold across a number of tests and analysing hair samples from time to time could be useful.

Infusions are a well-known vector for doping, so limiting them further might help too.