Energy drink could have doped Turkish athlete

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Hürriyet photo

European champion sprinter Nevin Yanıt’s positive test for a banned substance could have resulted from an energy drink, Turkish Athletics Federation (TAF) Mehmet Terzi has said.

Terzi spoke at a press conference after the country’s two leading female athletes, Yanıt and Olympic 1,500-meter champion Aslı Çakır Alptekin, were subjected to an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) doping investigation.

Both athletes have been provisionally suspended from all international competitions by the TAF and risk being stripped of their gold medals.

“Sometimes an athlete can be tested positive for banned substances. The tests could be taken by the national doping agency or WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency]. Then we send the athlete’s file to our federation’s disciplinary committee, and after hearing the athlete’s defense, it reaches a verdict,” he said. “Unfortunately, Nevin Yanıt is currently in this process.”

Yanıt is a two-time defending European champion 110-meter hurdler and finished fifth in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

“It is not rational that a two-time European champion and an Olympic fifth should use a banned substance before an event that has no importance – an event just she would run as a practice,” Terzi said, without saying which meet it was. “We have a worry that an energy drink might contain the banned substance. We have analyzed it. But we have to say that even though the athlete has used a banned substance without knowing it, that requires a ban.”

Terzi said the process for Alptekin would take longer since abnormalities were found in her blood passport.