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Norwegian skier stripped of wins over asthma mistake

AFP
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Norwegian skier stripped of wins over asthma mistake
Martin Sundby competing in the Oslo Skishow last month. Photo: Berit Roald / NTB scanpix

Norwegian cross country skier Martin Sundby was on Wednesday deprived of his wins in the 2015 Tour de Ski and banned for two months for using a banned asthma drug.

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The Norwegian federation held their hands up to the mistake after the ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
 
In a statement the federation explained: "CAS has ruled that Martin Johnsrud Sundby violated the (World Anti-Doping Agency) rules for illegal use of an anti-asthma medication, Ventoline.
 
"The Norwegian ski federation accepts full responsibility in this affair because the federation thought that it wasn't necessary to ask for a medical dispensation to take this medication."
 
The federation's doctor Knut Gabrielsen told a press conference that 31-year-old Sundby had suffered from asthma since childhood.
 
Traces of the banned substance were detected in an anti-doping control Sundby took at Davos in December 2014 and at Toblach in January 2015.
 
CAS accepted he had not taken the drug as a performance enhancer.
 
But for breaking the rules he was handed a two month ban, starting on July 11 and deprived of wins in the Tour de Ski and World Cup in the 2014/2015 season.

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