CAC clears Richard Gasquet of drug charges
Published:Thursday | December 17, 2009 | 5:24 PM
French tennis player Richard Gasquet was cleared of any wrongdoing today when a sports court accepted his claim that he tested positive for cocaine by kissing a woman in a nightclub.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAC) dismissed appeals by the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Tennis Federation, which wanted Gasquet banned up to two years.
The court accepted Gasquet\'s claim that he inadvertently consumed cocaine by kissing the woman in a Miami club hours after withdrawing injured from a tournament in March.
A CAS panel of three lawyers says the quantity of the drug in Gasquet\'s urine test was \"minute\" and the 23-year-old Frenchman was \"clearly not a regular cocaine user.\"
The verdict was greeted with dismay by WADA and the ITF, the sport\'s world governing body.