Rome: Italy's world No.1 foil fencer Andrea Baldini, one of the favourites to win gold at the Beijing Olympics, has failed a drugs test.
The 22-year-old tested positive for the banned diuretic furosemide at the European Championships in Kiev last month.
Baldini, who professed his innocence, will miss the Games and be replaced in the Italian fencing squad by Andrea Cassara.
"I didn't take anything," the fencer told FIS doctor Antonio Fiore in a telephone conversation reported by ANSA news agency.
"It's a dirty trick, it's malicious," declared Baldini's mother while his father said he was "devastated".
Furosemide is more commonly known as Lasix and appears on the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned drug list in its capacity as an alleged masking agent.
FIS president Giorgio Scarso spoke of his "astonishment and deep regret" at the news.
In its statement the FIS said it had asked for Baldini's second sample to be examined "as quickly as possible".
"In the light of this positive test the Italian national Olympic committee has excluded the athlete from the Olympic team," the federation added.
Baldini's Beijing stand-in, Cassara, and Italy's other selected fencer Salvatore Sanzo, will leave for China on Saturday.
Baldini, a dual European champion, was beaten in the foil final by Germany's Peter Joppich at the world fencing championships in Saint Petersburg in September 2007.
The Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper reported that he had undergone two anti-doping controls in the week leading up to the European championships in Russia, both negative.
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