FOOTBALL | Page 5 NBA | Page 8 Chelsea are Warriors set To Advertise here underdogs record with Call: 444 11 300, 444 66 621 against PSG, 45th straight says Hiddink home win Wednesday, March 9, 2016 CRICKET Jumada I 29, 1437 AH Mathews to GULF TIMES lead Lanka as Malinga steps down as captain SPORT Page 9 TENNIS Sharapova admits to failed drug test ‘I let my fans down, I let the sport down that I have been playing since the age of four and I love so deeply. I know with this I face consequences and I don’t want to end my career this way and I really hope I will be given another chance to play this game’ WHAT IS MELDONIUM AND WHY DID MARIA USE IT Maria Sharapova addresses the media regarding her failed eldonium is also known as mil- • The decision to add meldonium to the sent out to athletes by Russia’s anti-doping drug test in Los Angeles. (AFP) Mdronate, the name by which Maria banned list was approved on September agency last September informing them of Sharapova knew the drug, having taken it 16 last year and it came into eff ect on the decision to ban its use. since 2006. But what do we know about January 1, 2016. WADA had spent the • Sharapova says she has been taking the the substance, why was the Russian taking previous year monitoring the drug before drug for 10 years after she was regularly it and why was it banned only this year? adding it to the banned list. falling ill. She had a magnesium deficiency • Meldonium is used to treat ischaemia: a • The drug was name-checked in the latest and family history of diabetes. lack of blood flow to parts of the body, par- investigative documentary on Russian • Several athletes have been suspended ticularly in cases of angina or heart failure. doping reforms by the German Hajo Sep- since the turn of 2016 after testing positive • It is manufactured in Latvia and only pelt on Sunday. The documentary referred for the drug. Abebe Aregawi, the 2013 distributed in Baltic countries and Russia. to a 2015 study in which 17% of Russian women’s 1,500m world champion, has It is not approved by the Food and Drug athletes (724 of 4,316) tested were found to been suspended after meldonium was Administration for use in the United States have meldonium in their system. A global found in her A sample. Endeshaw Neges- and is not authorised in the rest of Europe. study found 2.2% of athletes had it in their se, the 2015 Tokyo marathon champion, • It increases blood flow, which improves system. was also banned after reportedly testing exercise capacity in athletes. • It is classed as an S4 substance under positive for the same substance. Others • WADA found “evidence of its use by the WADA code, which addresses hor- include Olga Abramova and Artem Tysch- athletes with the intention of enhancing mone and metabolic modulators. cenko, two Ukrainian biathletes, Eduard performance” by virtue of carrying more • The standard ban under the World Anti- Vorganov, a Russian cyclist and Ekaterina oxygen to muscle tissue. Doping Code is four years. A memo was Bobrova, a Russian ice dancer. By Les Carpenter in Los Angeles One of Sharapova’s biggest spon- was slowed immediately after she The Guardian sors, Nike, announced it had suspend- reached the world No. 1 ranking in ed its relationship with her while the 2006 with what became a long series investigation continues. of shoulder issues. In recent years she aria Sharapova has been “We are saddened and surprised by has battled forearm pain and leg ail- provisionally banned from the news about Maria Sharapova,” a ments. A few days ago she announced tennis after she revealed on Nike statement read. she would miss the BNP Paribas tour- Monday she tested positive However, Shamil Tarpishchev, presi- nament at Indian Wells in California Mat the Australian Open for a recently dent of the Russian Tennis Federation, because of a forearm injury. banned drug that she has been taking told the Russian news agency TASS he But even with her injuries Shara- for 10 years for health reasons. expected Sharapova to be available for pova has been a huge force in women’s The drug is called meldonium, this summer’s Rio Olympics after de- tennis. Her 6ft 2in frame allows her to though Sharapova said she had been scribing the positive test as “nonsense”. have one of the most powerful serves in using it under the name of mildronate Serena Williams, the top-ranked the game. She is also one of the hard- and was unaware of both the diff er- player in women’s tennis, said she was est hitters on the tour and is one of ent name and the fact that it is on the shocked to hear her friend had failed a the three best women’s players when World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned drug test, but she commended Shara- healthy. She has won each Grand Slam list until she received a letter notifying pova for showing courage in taking tournament once and has also won the her of the positive test 10 days ago. responsibility. “As Maria said, she’s French Open a second time, in 2014. “I let my fans down, I let the sport ready to take full responsibility and I She has long been praised for not let- down that I have been playing since the think that showed a lot of courage and ting the attention she receives for her age of four and I love so deeply. I know a lot of heart,” Williams said yesterday . model-like looks distract her from the with this I face consequences and I Sharapova’s announcement is al- game. Where players like fellow Rus- don’t want to end my career this way most unprecedented for a top athlete. sian Anna Kournikova seemed more in- and I really hope I will be given another Most sports stars try to hide posi- terested in being celebrities than tennis chance to play this game,” she said. tive tests for performance-enhancing players, Sharapova has played with an Sharapova claimed she was pre- drugs, hoping news will not break until intense dedication, which has added to scribed meldonium by her doctor in a suspension is revealed. But few ath- her popularity with fans and advertisers. 2006 to deal with health issues such letes are like Sharapova who has made When Sharapova’s publicist fi rst as an irregular heartbeat and a history herself into the highest-paid female in announced Monday’s press confer- of diabetes in her family. But the sub- sport, earning more than $20mn an- ence on Sunday afternoon, speculation stance was added to the banned list nually, through a series of high-end turned to the player’s possible retire- in January of this year because WADA endorsement deals. ment. The press release called it a “ma- said there was “evidence of its use by The implication that Sharapova has jor announcement” and, given that she athletes with the intention of enhanc- been cheating can be a devastating has played in only three tournaments ing performance”. blow to those deals. By revealing the in eight months, many thought she “For the past 10 years I have been test results herself she is attempting to was ending her career at the age of 28. given a medicine called mildronate by take control of the story, hoping that by She acknowledged that belief at her my family doctor and a few days ago, being up front people will believe she is press conference before saying in a after I received the ITF letter, I found being honest and really was taking mil- sombre tone that she would not retire out that it also has another name of dronate for health purposes. in a downtown Los Angeles hotel. She meldonium which I did not know. Meldonium was developed years ago then looked down and added, “with “It is very important for you to un- in Latvia to treat patients with heart this ugly carpet”. derstand that for 10 years this medicine conditions brought on by a lack of Sharapova’s lawyer, John Haggerty, was not on WADA’s banned list and I oxygen in their blood. It has become told reporters that, while athletes use had legally been taking the medicine popular with athletes who use the oxy- meldonium for performance-enhanc- for the past 10 years. But on January 1 gen-enhancers to improve endurance, ing purposes, it is at higher levels than the rules had changed and meldonium especially when working out. Last year, Sharapova was taking. He did not say became a prohibited substance which WADA announced that it was carefully what that level was or reveal the name I had not known. I failed the test and I studying the drug, allowing athletes to of her doctor. take full responsibility for it. I made a take it with the warning that it could The punishment for a positive test huge mistake,” the Russian added. soon be banned. A few months into can be up to a four-year ban, though is The ITF said Sharapova, who now that study WADA said meldonium was seems unlikely that Sharapova would faces a ban from the sport, had been being moved to 2016’s banned list. get anywhere near four years for a fi rst informed of the positive test on March Sharapova has struggled with in- violation.