May 11, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 5, 1429

MILAN, May 10: Former pole vault world champion Giuseppe Gibilisco’s two-year doping ban has been overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the athlete said on Friday.

CAS could not be reached for comment but Gibilisco said he was now looking forward to August’s Beijing Olympic Games.

“It is the end of a nightmare. Now I will give everything to reach the podium in Beijing,” the Italian told Gazzetta dello Sport.

The 29-year-old, who won gold at the 2003 world championships in Paris and bronze at the Athens Olympics a year later, was accused of being implicated in an Italian police probe into doping in sport which began in 2004.

The investigation has focused on the relationship between sportsmen and doctor Carlo Santuccione, who is alleged to have supplied athletes with banned substances.

Gibilisco was initially banned last July by the Italian Athletics Federation (FIDAL) after a request from the country’s anti-doping prosecutor.

However, he won an appeal in September with a FIDAL spokesman saying the ban had been lifted because Gibilisco had never failed a doping test.

The ban was then reinstated by a sporting judge in October, leading Gibilisco to take the long-running case to CAS.

Last month, CAS upheld cyclist Danilo Di Luca’s three-month ban for frequenting Santuccione.

The Italian rider had already served the suspension from October.—Reuters