Written by Richard Pagliaro | @Itenisi_Manje | Thursday, November 14, 2024
Photo credit: Flaviu Buboi/Nur Photos/Getty
Nikola Bartunkova he can return to tennis now.
The 2023 Wimbledon girls’ finalist accepted a six-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine in February and March.
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I International Tennis Integrity Agency it was announced today that the Czech player was “not at fault or negligent” for the unintentional anti-doping violation. Bartunkova qualified to return to tennis on November 11.
The 18-year-old Bartunkova reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 226 in April 2024.
After an investigation, the ITIA accepted that the positive test for trimetazidine “was caused by the contamination of the supplement containing milk thistle extract, that the violation was not intentional, and that the player did not have a significant fault or negligence,” ITIA said in a statement.
After an investigation, Bartunkova told ITIA on October 27th that a contaminated additive was the source of the trimetazidine found in her sample.
In response, the ITIA commissioned the independent and WADA-accredited Sports Medicine Research & Testing Laboratory (SMRTL) in Utah, USA, to test the supplement. These findings were confirmed, and the condition was confirmed by an independent scientific expert as plausible.
After consulting with Bartunkova, the ITIA accepted that the violation was unintentional and that she held “No Significant Fault or Negligence” for the anti-doping violation.
The young Czech is currently ranked 488th and has earned $84,031 in career prize money.
