Italian race walker Alex
Schwazer may make an urgent request for his ban on participating
at the Rio Olympics following a positive drugs test to be
suspended, his lawyer Gerhard Brandstätter said Wednesday.
The 2008 50km walk Olympic champion, who returned to
action this year after serving a ban for failing a doping test
before the 2012 London Olympics, denies any wrongdoing and has
not been given enough time to defend himself, Brandstätter told
daily newspaper Tageszeitung.
The incriminating dope test, the lawyers said, was taken
on January 1 and came out positive five months later.
The results were available on May 13 but were only
conveyed to the athlete on June 21.
"With this test, carried out only five months later and
with the fact that the result was communicated to (Schwazer)
with a delay of fully five weeks, our defence rights have been
limited," said Brandstätter.
In the meantime, yesterday, tests on the B sample were
carried out in a German lab.
The result could be known as early as Thursday, while the
deadline for calling up athletes for Rio falls next Monday.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
