Nick D'Arcy, favourite for the 200m butterfly crown at the Commonwealth Games in October, is embroiled in a struggle to stave off a doping ban after paperwork allowing him to take an asthma medication went missing, according to Australian reports.
D'Arcy tested positive for the banned substance Formoterol. The drug can be taken by registered asthmatics with a Therapeutic Use Exemption form but paperwork giving him permission to use the drug "went missing", according to Swimming Australia, a federation now left with the task of proving that D'Arcy is not a cheat.
FINA said that there is no paperwork for D'Arcy. Swimming Australia says there is - but must now find the submission and approval.The end of the story is not yet clear, with one FINA source telling SwimNews that FINA accepted that the paperwork got lost in the post and that a new, backdated TUE was issued.Time will tell where D'Arcy finds himself on this one.
The latest news come hot on the heels of a three-month ban for Ryan Napoleon, who tested positive for a different asthma treatment. That belonged to his father, father and son both asthmatics. A pharmacist signed a statutory declaration that he had given the swimmer incorrectly labelled medication by mistake.
