Nine Turkish track and field athletes have been banned for two years each after testing positive for anabolic steroid. The IAAF said on Wednesday that six of the athletes are women, including two teenagers.
Six cases involved field athletes testing positive for stanozolol at Turkey’s national university championships held in May at Bursa. Stanozolol is the steroid used by Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Among those six, three athletes also tested positive for oral turinabol, the steroid used in state-sponsored East German doping programs in the 1970s and 1980s.The IAAF said 17-year-old discus thrower Burcu Akmazoglu tested positive for both banned drugs. She is suspended from competing through June 13, 2015.
A second teenager, 18-year-old hammer thrower Elif Akbas, also tested positive for stanozolol at the student event. An IAAF list of sanctioned athletes shows that stanozolol and oral turinabol were both found in samples taken at Bursa from Kubra Danis, a 22-year-old shot putter, and Gokce Celenk, a 25-year-old discus thrower. Javelin throwers Sarik Bilgin, who is 25, and 21-year-old Gulsum Ozdemir Gunes also tested positive for stanozolol.
The IAAF said the other cases involve two field athletes and one runner testing positive for stanozolol, methandienone and oxandrolone, respectively.
Sergei Bubka says drug cheats ‘will pay the price’
LONDON: IOC presidential candidate and pole vault great Sergei Bubka says the spate of recent high-profile doping cases in track and field shows global drug-testing efforts are working and cheaters ‘will pay the price.’
The former Olympic gold medalist and six-time world champion says he was disappointed by the positive tests involving sprinters Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson but takes heart that the anti-doping system ‘works.’ AFP