Thu, Oct 14 10 09:17 PM
Former world champion Yuri van Gelder, who was withdrawn from the Dutch world championship team this week for allegedly using cocaine, denied on Thursday he had used drugs.
The country's gymnastics union (KNGU) said on Wednesday there were indications of a "relapse situation", prompting Van Gelder to be pulled from the team to compete in Rotterdam this weekend.
The 27-year-old Van Gelder, who won the world title on the rings in 2005, had only recently returned to the sport after a suspension of more than a year for cocaine use, having spent time in a Scottish drug rehabilitation clinic.
"Since my admission in the clinic and up until today I have not used any narcotics or cocaine," Van Gelder said in a statement on Thursday.
The gymnast added that due to the "great pressure" of his return to the sport he feared a relapse and had told the KNGU it would be a better option not to compete in Rotterdam.
KNGU spokesman Dagmar van Stiphout said the organisation noted Van Gelder's statement, but stressed there had been "sufficient reasons" to issue its statement explaining it had pulled Van Gelder from the team due to a relapse.
"I can imagine this raises questions. There comes a statement from us and then Yuri also chooses to issue a statement and they will not be the same," Stiphout said.
"We had reasons to give the statement that we did yesterday and for us that is what it is all about. Maybe it will prove in a year's time to be a misunderstanding, but I just don't know."
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