Yanit drugs ban could see O'Rourke getting Euro medal
Turkish athlete Nevin Yanit has been handed a two-year ban for doping, increasing the chances that Derval O’Rourke will receive a medal from March’s European Indoor Athletics Championships.
The twice European sprint hurdles champion received her two-year suspension from the Turkish Athletics Federation this morning.
Yanit tested positive at an indoor meeting in Dusseldorf in February, a month before winning the 60m hurdles at the European Indoors in Gothenburg, where O’Rourke finished fourth.
As the positive test pre-dates her victory in Sweden by a month, it is likely she will be stripped of this title – Yanit also won the 100m hurdles crowns at outdoor European Championships at Barcelona 2010 and Helsinki 2012.
O’Rourke finished second behind Yanit in Barcelona by two-hundredths of a second – though this result is likely to be unaffected by today’s developments - and was denied a medal in Gothenburg by 0.01.
An upgrading for the Cork athlete would see her receive her fifth major Championship medal.
A statement from the TAF reads: “The IAAF had informed us that Nevin Yanit’s sample taken at the PSD Bank event in Dusseldorf on February 8 tested positive for a banned substance.
“After her B sample also tested positive, the Disciplinary Board asked for Yanit’s defense and decided to ban the athlete for two years following deliberations.”
There has still be no decision made about Olympic 1500m champion Asl Çakir Alptekin.
The doping scandal has already seen 31 Turkish athletes, across a number of sports, already banned this summer, and last week cost TAF chairman Mehmet Terzi his job, after his claims of innocent reasons at the time of the positive tests.
