Former European champion Ayhan gets life ban

By Brian Homewood

BERNE (Reuters) - Turkish middle-distance runner Sureyya Ayhan, a former European champion in the women's 1,500 metres, has been given a life ban for doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after losing an appeal.

However, a two-year ban against her husband and trainer Yucel Kop had been lifted, CAS said.

CAS, sport's highest tribunal, said Ayhan had tested positive for stanozolol and methandienone metabolites in an out-of-competition control in September 2007, having previously violated anti-doping rules in 2004.

"Considering that the second violation was committed in 2007, namely a substantial period of time after the athlete had received notice of the first violation in the year 2004, the conditions for admitting a multiple violation under IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) Rule 40.6 are fulfilled and a life ban has been ordered," said CAS in a statement.

Ayhan, 31, won the gold medal at the European championships in Munich in 2002 and a silver at the world championships in Paris the following year.

She ran at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney but pulled out of Athens four years later.

Ayhan was originally given a life ban by the Turkish Athletics Federation (TAF) in January 2008 but this was reduced to four years on appeal to a Turkish tribunal four months later. Her husband Kop was banned for two years.

Both Ayhan and Kop took their cases to the Lausanne-based CAS.