Czech Davis Cup player Ivo Minar banned for 8 months for positive doping test

Czech player Minar banned 8 months for doping

LONDON — Czech player Ivo Minar was banned for eight months on Wednesday after testing positive for a banned substance following a Davis Cup match.

A sample taken after the Davis Cup quarterfinal against Argentine on July 11 contained the banned stimulant methylhexanamine, the International Tennis Federation said.

The 25-year-old Minar claimed he had taken a food supplement that contained the substance and did not intend to cheat.

The ITF said the ban will end on March 10, 2010, and ruled that Minar’s results this year from tournaments in Stuttgart, Hamburg and Gstaad should be disqualified.

“The ITF accepted Mr. Minar’s account of the background to his positive test,” the federation said in a statement. “Under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program, however, it is a player’s strict personal duty to ensure that no prohibited substance enters his or her body, whether as an ingredient in a nutritional supplement or otherwise.”

Czech tennis federation president Ivo Kaderka said Minar has no plans to appeal the ban, in order to avoid being hit with a longer ban.

“I don’t agree with a punishment for someone who has not been doping, but just purchased a food supplement which was supposed to be a drug-free,” Kaderka told The Associated Press. “That’s a problem for me.”

Associated Press Writer Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.