Spain’s Marta Dominguez, the 2009 world steeplechase champion, was banned for three years on Thursday after abnormalities were discovered in her biological passport, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced.
The 40-year-old athlete had been involved in a long-running saga which had seen her originally banned for four years by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in 2013.
But in February 2014, Dominguez was cleared by the Spanish athletics federation (RFEA) and had her suspension lifted.
In response, the IAAF as well as the world anti-doping body (WADA) lodged appeals with CAS.
“The (CAS) panel found that none of the explanations offered by the RFEA or Marta Dominguez were sufficient for the panel not to be comfortably satisfied by the scientific evidence presented by WADA and the IAAF’s experts that an anti-doping rule violation had occurred,” said a CAS statement.
“Accordingly, the panel set aside the RFEA decision and found Ms Dominguez guilty of an anti-doping rule violation. With respect to the sanction, the panel found that a three-year period of ineligibility was appropriate.”
Dominguez could now be stripped of her 2009 world title.
“The panel also ordered that all competitive results obtained by Ms Dominguez from 5 August 2009 (date of the first of sample collections) until 8 July 2013 (commencement of provisional suspension) be disqualified,” CAS added.