Austria’s slalom champ Rainer Schoenfelder tests positive for banned stimulant{mosimage}Reigning slalom World Cup champion Rainer Schoenfelder of Austria has tested positive for the banned stimulant Etilephrine and could receive a ban of up to two years.

Schoenfelder failed the drug test March 27 during the Austrian slalom championships in the Carinthia province. He said he had taken Influbene tablets to fight the flu.

“I wanted to attend the championships and because I could not get hold of our team doctor, I based my judgment on the official brochure of Swiss Olympic 2003 in which Influbene C was named as unobjectionable,” Schoenfelder told the Associated Press on Friday. “Unfortunately, I did not know there are various medications of the Influbene type and the very one sold in Austria contains Etilephrine. I honestly hope everyone can see that it is nothing but a mix-up.”

“Doping was, is and always will be a taboo for me,” he added.

Schoenfelder, 26, emphasized nobody could actually believe he would use drugs in the final race of the season, “especially because it wasn’t a pass-or-fail race at all.”

Schoenfelder, who won the 2003-04 slalom World Cup title ahead of Finland’s Kalle Palander, previously tested negative several times in the World Cup. “I hope that the officials who are to decide on the matter also understand the situation,” he said.

According to the regulations of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), failing a drug test means a ban of up to two years. In case of extenuating circumstances a reduction to three months and even an acquittal are possible.

WADA officials were not immediately available for comment. However, Karlheinz Demel of the Austrian Anti-Doping Committee confirmed a ban was certainly an option, although Etilephrine was only a stimulant.

“Should the amount of the substance be enough to enable performance-enhancing effects then a suspension is justifiable,” Demel said.

Demel seemed to back Schoenfelder’s statements, saying “Rainer had told me immediately that he had taken two tablets of Influbene and the results matched the dose. To me, it seems, he has fallen victim to a problem we have been fighting in vain for long. The big pharmaceutical companies don’t give precise details on the ingredients of their

medication.”

The Austrian Ski Federation (OSV), which is the first authority to deal with the case since Schoenfelder tested positive in a national competition, was to summon him to headquarters in Innsbruck, where the disciplinary commission of three legal experts will question him and decide on the matter, “probably by the end of the month,” said Klaus

Leistner. managing director.

In a similar case, British skier Alain Baxter was stripped of his 2002 Olympic bronze medal after he tested positive for the banned stimulant mehamphetamine. Baxter said he took the banned substance unwittingly in an over-the-counter nasal decongestant.

The British Olympic Association has announced it would make an exemption from its rules — which ban athletes who fail dope tests for life from the Olympics — and allow Baxter to compete in the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, because of “significant mitigating circumstances.”