Sun Yingjie claims innocence over doping
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-23 09:06

China's star distance runner Sun Yingjie, a world championship bronze medallist, has claimed innocence after a failed dope test resulted in her being disqualified from the China National Games.

China's star distance runner Sun Yingjie, a world championship bronze medallist, has claimed innocence after a failed dope test resulted in her being disqualified from the China National Games. [AFP/file]

The State Administration of Sports announced Friday that Sun, 26, tested positive for androsterone, a steroid precursor of the male hormone testosterone, after finishing second in the 10,000 meters on Monday.

She was stripped of her silver medal and thrown out of the Games.

"This is just shocking to me, I can't believe it, I never thought that after 10 years of athletic competition that this kind of thing would happen," Sun said in a local television interview.

"I believe that the people responsible must maintain my innoncence and say I'm clean."

Sun further demanded that the games anti-doping commission test her B sample.

"I hope that when the B sample is checked it will clearly show (I'm clean), I hope that the responsible people, the leaders, can explain to me how this happened."

Sun is one of China's top hopes for a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the positive test will be a serious blow to the nation's plans to make a mark on home turf in track events.

She could be facing up to a two-year ban from the sport.

Her gold medal victory in the Games marathon, run in Beijing a day before the 10,000m race, will stand as both a pre-marathon blood test and a post-race urine test were negative for banned substances, officials said.

The victory was her third consecutive Beijing marathon title.

"We feel we are being wrongly accused, so we need to investigate and appeal. I think we are clean," Sun's coach Wang Dexian told the Jiangnan Times.

Wang said he suspected foul play in the incident, saying Sun was given a bottle of water by an unknown person just before Monday's race.

"Sun Yingjie has been a top level athlete in domestic competition for many years and before this there have never been any problems," Feng Shuyong, vice head of the China Athletics Association, said.

"We are shocked and feel that the occurence of this issue is not normal."

Androsterone is a naturally occurring steroid, but the amounts discovered in Sun's urine test were above normal levels, Zhao Jian, vice head of the game's anti-doping commission told AFP.

"This steroid has been listed as a banned substance for a long time and has been easy to detect for a long time. It is not likely that she took it accidentally," Zhao said.

He refused to speculate whether Sun took the drug herself or whether it was given to her by a coach or team doctor. China normally punishes both coaches and athletes in positive doping cases.

Wang is also the coach of Athens Olympics 10,000m champion Xing Huina, who has also been embroiled in controversy here, being stripped of her gold medal in the 1,500m for bumping an opponent.

Cao Jianmin, a medical expert at the Beijing Sports University, said that androsterone was a steroid much abused in the 1980s which aided athletes to recover from exhaustion and build up stamina.

"If you want to build up your athletic ability, you must use this steroid over a certain period of time ... it is not like (other substances) where you use it just once and there is a clear effect," Cao told the Jiangnan Times.