Swimming: Magnini gets 4-yr ban

(ANSA) - Rome, November 6 - Former Italian swimming champion Filippo Magnini got a four-year ban for doping Tuesday.
    The two-time former world 100m freestyle champ, 36, was banned by the national anti-doping tribunal of the National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) for taking banned substances.
    Prosecutors had asked for an eight-year ban.
    Magnini, also a three-time European 100m freestyle champ, retired a couple of years ago. He is the best Italian freestyle swimmer of all time along with Giorgio Lamberti.
    "It's a sentence that was already written and that's why I'm royally pissed off," said Magnini.
    ..."We're talking about picking on me, forcing the issue," he said, saying a prosecutor had told him "it's become a personal thing".