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Hearing for Park's doping case set for Feb. 27

Xinhua, January 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

World swimming governing body FINA has scheduled a hearing on South Korea's star swimmer Park Tae-hwan's doping case on Feb. 27, the Korea Swimming Federation (KSF) said on Wednesday.

KSF said FINA had informed it that it will hold the hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland, at 8:30 a.m. local time on Feb. 27. FINA is headquartered there, but according to the KSF, FINA said it will confirm the specific location of the hearing later.

FINA has separately told Park's camp about the hearing, according to the KSF.

Park's doping scandal was revealed by Yonhap late Monday and the South Korean media said Tuesday that Park was tested positive for testosterone in July last year, and his Seoul-based agency Team GMP blamed the positive result on an injection given by a local hospital.

According to Yonhap, the KSF has said Park was tested ahead of the Asian Games, which opened in September, and was notified of the result last October.

TEAM GMP is seeking a legal action against the Seoul-based hospital, and state prosecutors said Tuesday Park received a shot of testosterone, a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Prosecutors are considering indicting the doctor who administered the injection, surnamed Kim, on charges of professional negligence.

Though Park argued that he didn't intentionally take the banned substance, he may ultimately be held accountable for the result and face discipline, based on WADA's World Anti-Doping Code.

In Article 10, titled "Sanctions on Individuals," the code states that if an athlete can establish that he or she bears no fault or negligence, the athlete may not face sanctions. However, one exception cited by the same code is "the administration of a prohibited substance by the athlete's personal physician or trainer without disclosure to the athlete."

The code also points out: "Athletes are responsible for their choice of medical personnel and for advising medical personnel that they cannot be given any prohibited substance."

Park won a gold and a silver at the 2008 Beijing Games to become South Korea's first Olympic swimming medalist.

He also won silver in both events at the 2012 London Olympics, along with 400m gold in the world championships in 2007 and 2011.

But the 25-year-old only won a silver and five bronze medals at the Asiad last year. Endi