Olympic champ Alptekin charged with doping - IAAF

LAUSANNE (AFP) –

Turkey’s Asli Cakir Alptekin celebrates after winning the women’s 1500m final at the London 2012 Olympic Games on August 10, 2012. Alptekin, who won the women’s 1500m gold medal at the London Olympics last year, was charged with doping by the International Association of Athletics Federations on Friday.

Turkey’s Asli Cakir Alptekin, who won the women’s 1500m gold medal at the London Olympics last year, was charged with doping by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on Friday.

The 27-year-old has been provisionally suspended after anomalies were discovered in her biological passport.

Her compatriot, Nevin Yanit, the European women’s 100m hurdles champion was also suspended after multiple positive dope test results, both in and out of competition, said the IAAF.

“Asli Cakir (Alptekin) and Nevin Yanit have been charged with anti-doping rule violations,” IAAF spokesman Nick Davies confirmed to AFP.

“Ms Cakir on the basis of abnormal blood values from her Biological passport. Ms Yanit on the basis of multiple positive findings following target tests carried out in-competition and out-of-competition by the IAAF,” Davies explained.

“Both cases have been referred to the Turkish Athletic Federation for adjudication as is usual under IAAF rules and we await a decision from them,” he added.

If found guilty, Alptekin faces a lifetime ban as it would mark the second time she’s fallen foul of anti-doping regulations, having previously a served two-year suspension for a drug offence in 2004.

She would also be stripped of her London Games crown with compatriot Gamze Bulut upgraded to gold, becoming the second athlete to lose her Olympic title after Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Astapchuk, who tested positive for an anabolic steroid.

Questions over Alptekin’s performances initially came to light a few weeks prior to London after her victory in the 1500m at the Diamond League meeting in Paris, in which she posted a personal best of 3min 56.62sec.

If Alptekin’s Olympic result were to be erased, it would mark the first time a biological passport has been used to sanction a Games medallist.

The Athlete Biological Passport, which was officially adopted by athletics in 2010, measures and monitors an athlete’s blood variables over time and establishes an individual profile which can indicate the use of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method.

Should Alptekin be forced to vacate her London title it would be the second successive Games in which a 1500m champion was stripped of gold after Beijing 2008 men’s winner Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain was disqualified after testing positive for the blood-boosting drug Cera.