Current women's world champion Marta Bastianelli has tested positive for the banned substance flenfluramine, the Italian Cycling Federation confirmed on Monday. Traces of fenfluramine were found in a urine sample taken after Bastianelli finished third in the Europeean Under 23 road race championships on July 5 in Verbania, Italy.
As a side-note, I do believe it's fenfluramine. I wasn't able to find much information on flenfluramine but there was quite a bit of information about fenfluramine (aka Fen-Phen) on the web, including this Wikipedia article about it.
As another side-note, there are some differences in the translations of the statements released by the Italian Cycling federation. In the CyclingWeekly article, Renato di Rocco, the president of the Italian Cycling Federation, is quoted as saying:
She's been incredibly ingenious, she was positive for fenfluramine, that is in dieting products. She's obsessed with her weight. She only eats salad.Whereas CyclingNews quotes Renato di Rocco as saying:
She's been incredibly naïve. Marta is really obsessed with her weight. She eats only salads.There's quite a difference between being ingenious and being naïve, but without seeing the original quote, I am inclined to assume that the more accurate translation is "She's been incredibly naïve".
