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2000 World Figure Skating Championships March 26 - April 2, 2000 Nice, France News Release

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Today the Organizing Committee of the 2000 World Figure Skating Championships in Nice has received an official communication from the Figure Skating Federation of Uzbekistan, informing that the Pair Natalia Ponomareva/ Evgeniy Sviridov (UZB) will not participate in the Pairs event of these World Figure Skating Championships.

The reason for the withdrawal of the entry of Natalia Ponomareva/ Evgeniy Sviridov is due to the fact that Evgeniy Sviridov has received from the ISU a Communication for a positive test of a prohibited substance in the category of stimulants. The skater has declared that he had taken this class of banned substances inadvertently for the purpose of treating a cold and a cough. The control was taken at the 2000 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Osaka.

The Uzbekistan Federation has also informed the ISU that both they and the skater waived the right to the analysis of the B Sample as permitted by the ISU Regulation.

The ISU Council will consider the case in due course.