LONDON, Dec. 23 (dpa/EP) –
British tennis player Tara Moore has been acquitted of committing a doping offense and can resume her career after an investigation that has lasted more than 18 months.
The 31-year-old player was provisionally suspended in May 2022 after testing positive for the anabolic steroids boldenone and nandrolone at a tournament in Colombia.
Moore immediately maintained her innocence and now an independent court has determined that the contaminated meat was the source of the banned substances and that she was neither at fault nor negligent.
Moore was ranked 83rd in the world at the time of her suspension and was Britain's highest-ranked doubles player, but is now de-ranked having been unable to play since. Moore reached her second final on the WTA circuit at the Bogotá tournament in which she tested positive.
Moore is not the first player to fail an anti-doping test in South America for having eaten contaminated meat. “The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has issued, and will continue to issue, information regarding the risks of meat contamination in certain parts of the world to all players,” she noted.