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--- Lane 9 News ---
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Ous Mellouli Faces Loss of World Medals Due to Positive Drug Test -- April 24, 2007
PARIS, France, April 24. ACCORDING to reports by L'Equipe, Ous Mellouli may wind up having to give back the first world championship medals won by a Arab swimmer after testing positive for amphetamines. The positive test came during the U.S. Open in November.
FINA has sent the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, which could end up in a two year suspension. If that is the case, Mellouli would have to return his World Championships medals in the 800 free (gold) and 400 free (silver).
The return would give Australia's Grant Hackett and Russia's Yury Prilukov the silver and bronze in the 400 free, while Poland's Przemyslaw Stanczyk would take gold in the 800 free. Australia's Craig Stevens (silver) and Italy's Federico Colbertaldo (bronze) would also move into better medal slots in the 800 free.
Mellouli told L'Equipe that he took Adderall, a pharmaceutical stimulant amphetamine used to treat attention-deficit-disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, to help him with his studies.
The drug helps users to concentrate over a longer period of time, and collegiate students have popularized the drug as a study aid.
According to a report by Nicole Jeffery of The Australian, the Tunisian swimming federation gave Mellouli a warning based on his explanation of why he used the drug in the first place.
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