Schwazer says ready to testify at CAS for Carolina Kostner

(ANSA) Rome, April 1 - Alex Schwazer said Wednesday he is willing to testify at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to help former girlfriend Carolina Kostner avert a longer ban for helping him dodge a drugs test.
    "I am sorry for her," Schwazer, the 2008 50 km walk Olympic champion told a news conference in Rome, "if I am called to Lausanne to testify I shall go there, no problem".
    "I hope that this situation will finish also for her and that we can both look to the future with optimism".
    The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) last month asked the CAS to lengthen a 16-month Italian ban for skater Kostner to 2-4 years for abetting Schwazer.
    Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) prosecutors had initially requested a four-year ban for former world champion Kostner for her role in the violations by Schwazer.
    However, Italy's anti-doping tribunal opted for the 16-month ban, explaining that Kostner did not know Schwazer was using drugs, adding that even though she "knowingly lied" to a WADA inspector, it considered "the attenuating circumstance" that she was in love.
    Kostner, who won gold at the 2012 figure-skating world championship and bronze at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was also charged with failing to report doping offences to the authorities.
    Schwazer has been banned from competition until January 2016 after testing positive for the illegal blood-booster EPO just before the London Olympics.
    CONI prosecutors opened a case against Kostner after media reports that she confessed to criminal prosecutors that she helped Schwazer dodge a surprise doping test in July 2012.
    Kostner is appealing the 16-month ban, according to a statement from the court of arbitration.
    It said that she "principally (is) seeking its annulment and a declaration that she did not commit any breach of the anti-doping rules".