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Tennis players shun controversial Spanish doctor
Source: Agencies |
November 15, 2012, Thursday
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THE owner of a top tennis academy in Spain that trained some of the stars says its players have stopped working with a doctor banned by the US Anti-Doping Agency for helping riders dope on Lance Armstrong's cycling team.
Pancho Alvarino said the relationship between his TenisVal academy and doctor Luis Garcia del Moral "started approximately 14-15 years ago."
That overlaps with del Moral's work for the US Postal Service cycling team.
The USADA says del Moral helped to implement a "team-wide doping program" as a doctor for USPS from 1999-2003, when Armstrong won the first five of seven Tour de France titles.
The USADA in July handed the doctor a lifetime sports ban. Del Moral criticized the agency's proceedings and said he never witnessed organized doping at USPS. Alvarino said "many of our players" consulted del Moral for preseason blood tests, strength tests and for injuries.
Sara Errani of Italy, the losing finalist in women's singles at the 2012 French Open, said in September that del Moral "was the best doctor in Valencia for everything, so I have been working with him, of course." Errani added she would no longer consult him because "his name is not (a) good name."
Former top-ranked woman Dinara Safina of Russia also consulted del Moral when she was at TenisVal. Russian website Sport Express quoted Safina as saying del Moral "has the only real clinic in Valencia where athletes can undergo tests before the beginning of the season and at the end." "And we underwent the tests in this clinic. We ran on the treadmill, they took blood samples from our ears, and so on. I have nothing to be afraid of. I'm clean."
Pancho Alvarino said the relationship between his TenisVal academy and doctor Luis Garcia del Moral "started approximately 14-15 years ago."
That overlaps with del Moral's work for the US Postal Service cycling team.
The USADA says del Moral helped to implement a "team-wide doping program" as a doctor for USPS from 1999-2003, when Armstrong won the first five of seven Tour de France titles.
The USADA in July handed the doctor a lifetime sports ban. Del Moral criticized the agency's proceedings and said he never witnessed organized doping at USPS. Alvarino said "many of our players" consulted del Moral for preseason blood tests, strength tests and for injuries.
Sara Errani of Italy, the losing finalist in women's singles at the 2012 French Open, said in September that del Moral "was the best doctor in Valencia for everything, so I have been working with him, of course." Errani added she would no longer consult him because "his name is not (a) good name."
Former top-ranked woman Dinara Safina of Russia also consulted del Moral when she was at TenisVal. Russian website Sport Express quoted Safina as saying del Moral "has the only real clinic in Valencia where athletes can undergo tests before the beginning of the season and at the end." "And we underwent the tests in this clinic. We ran on the treadmill, they took blood samples from our ears, and so on. I have nothing to be afraid of. I'm clean."
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