World women's road cycling champion Marta Bastianelli from Italy is out of the upcoming Beijing Olympics for failing a doping test.
A spokeswoman of Italian Cycling Federation (ICF) announced on Monday that Bastianelli tested positive for a stimulant in a control run by the International Cycling Union (UCI) during the Under-23 World Championships at Verbania on July 5, the competition at which she qualified for next month's Olympic Games in Beijing.
The Italian Olympic Committee then decided to kick her off the Olympic squad, but Bastianelli and the ICF president Renato Di Rocco both insisted she was innocent.
Bastianelli blamed her local chemist for failing of the doping test.
"I'm disgusted with my trusted chemist for preparing a mix of herbs for me aimed at weight loss, " She said, " Like always I wanted to read the list of products used and amongst them was benfluorex, which doesn't figure among the list of banned substances."
Rocco supported Bastianelli, saying : " She hasbeen incredibly naive. She has tested positive for flenfluramine, which is a component in diet products. She only eats salad. "
"Now we will ask immediately for the counter-analysis. But the problem is not just the Olympics. The problem is her image and that of cycling." he added.
Bastianelli, a 21-year old road cycling rising star, won the women's road race at last year's world championships in Stuttgart.
(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2008)