British tennis player Tara Moore has been cleared of any wrongdoing in an alleged case of doping following a harrowing 19 months of investigations.
Moore, primarily a doubles specialist these days and the highest-ranked Briton in doubles on the WTA Tour during her provisional suspension from tennis in April 2022, is now free to resume her career after a long-awaited verdict.
While competing at a Tour-level tournament in Colombia last year, Moore provided samples to doping officials that tested positive for nandrolone metabolites and boldenone, which are prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
On learning of her suspension, Moore vowed to prove she was a "clean athlete" and embarked on protesting her innocence. After a near two-year period of analysis, the independent tribunal found that the British player had eaten contaminated meat, the direct source of the banned substances.
In its verdict, the panel asserted that Moore "bore no fault or negligence," and the ITIA has since issued a response related to Saturday's ruling, saying, "ITIA has issued, and will continue to issue, information concerning the risks of meat contamination in certain parts of the world to all players."
Moore, currently unraked because of her suspension, will have to resurrect her tennis journey from scratch at the age of 31. While the decision is a welcome relief, she has been living the past 19 months in distress and was conspicuously emotional when she put her thoughts into words in a recent tweet on X (formerly Twitter).
"It's going to take more than 19 months to rebuild, repair and recuperate from what we've been through, but we will come back stronger than ever. Thank you to everyone for the messages and hope to see you on the tennis court in 2024."
Several tennis fans have shared their messages of support for the Hong Kong-born British player who could not make a living from her career while being innocent. They have pleaded with the governing bodies to cover for the damages caused.
"Criminal. I hope you take them to court for lost wages, lawyer and court fees, and defamation of character. Their refusal to have this done in a timely manner is criminal. The days of assumed guilt needs to end."
Considering the verdict, it feels so cruel that she doesn't have a ranking, to begin with, and Australian coach Darren Cahill has criticized the ITIA's timeline in issuing a final decision regarding Tara Moore's case in the same way it took them so long in Simona Halep's case.
"This timeline is so bad. It’ll take Tara 18-24 months to recover her rankings if everything goes perfectly. Tennis is a unique sport where we are wiped out & back to zero after 12 months. The @WTA should reinstate her rankings or at very least provide provisional rankings."
Andy Murray's mother, Judy Murray, expressed her delight to hear the verdict that Moore was cleared and echoed the sentiments shared by many other users who commented on her post.
"So happy to see Tara Moore 🇬🇧 cleared by an independent panel after testing positive for anabolic steroids boldenone + nandrolone during WTA Bogotá in April last year. Panel agreed she had consumed contaminated meat + her provisional suspension has been lifted after 19 months."
"Tara had just broken into top 100 and become the British #1 doubles player. 19 months is a long time to lose at any stage of a players career and you can’t put a price on the emotional + financial stress involved in clearing your name."
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