Serghei Tarnovschi

Serghei Tarnovschi

Personal information
Nationality	Moldovan
Born	(1997-06-24) 24 June 1997
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	80 kg (176 lb)
Sport
Country	Ukraine (until 2013)  Moldova (since 2014)
Sport	Canoe
Medal record World Championships 2015 Milan C-1 1000 m European Championships 2016 Moscow C-1 1000 m Youth Olympic Games 2014 Nanjing Sprint C1

Serghei Tarnovschi (born 24 June 1997)^[1] is a Moldovan (since 2014) and Ukrainian (until 2013) canoeist.

Career

He represented Moldova at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where won a bronze medal at Men's C-1 1000 metres.

On 18 August 2016, Tarnovschi has been suspended after failing doping test.^[2]

On November 30, 2016, Tarnovschi's lawyer Paul J. Greene, admitted that a prohibited substance was in fact found in the athlete's urine sample, claiming that "the substance could not produce any effect".^[3]

Moreover, Greene was blaming a pre-workout mix Explosin, produced by Czech company Nutrend.^[4] Greene claims that Explosin which Tarnovshi administered to himself, was contaminated with traces of a prohibited substance under WADA regulations.^[5]

On August 19, 2016, in a press release, the Olympic Committee of Moldova stated that the prohibited substance in Tarnovschi's urine sample was the Growth Hormone Releasing Peptide.^[6][7]

In an article from November 3, 2016, a Moldova news agency Unimedia stated that the B sample of Tarnovschi's urine also tested positive for GHRP 2.^[8] On the same day the MOLDPRES news agency stated that Tarnovschi's Olympic bronze medal will be stripped, and the prize money (2 million MDL) will be withheld until the International Canoe Federation's final decision in his case. ICF held an annual conference on November 27, 2016, in Baku, Azerbaijan, where on November 30 the deliberations in Tarnovschi's doping case took place. According to Moldova National Olympic Committee, the decision was to be made public "in a few weeks".^[9]

In an October 14, 2016 interview to an infamous Russian canoe portal canoesport.ru, the president of the Moldova Olympic Committee, Nicolae Juravschi, stated that "It seems that the great powers are clearing the road to the medals for their athletes". English version of the text can be found on the Sportscene's Facebook page here^[10]

In a press release from February 3, 2017, the International Canoe Federation announced that Tarnovschi was found guilty, and disqualified for 4 years under Section 2.1 of ICF Anti-Doping Rules, effective from the date that the positive urine sample was obtained on July 8, 2016, and that all results, points, and awards after that date deemed invalid. By consequence, Tarnovshi's bronze Olympic medal will be stripped and passed on Ilia Shtokalov, a Russian athlete who came in 4th in the C1 1000m race in Rio Olympics 2016.^[11]

References