BUSAN, Oct 14: Indian runner Sunita Rani, who tested positive for a banned substance after winning the Asian Games 1,500 metres, also failed a drug test taken after her bronze in the 5,000m, officials said Monday.

Jagdish Tytler, chef de mission of India’s Asian Games team, said the 22-year-old had recorded positive tests for the steroid nandrolone in her urine on both occasions but denied she was guilty.

“The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) told us that the second test (for the 5,000m) had been positive and the girl insisted she had taken nothing,” said Tytler after a hearing convened by the OCA which Rani attended Monday.

Indian team doctor Jawaharal Jain said traces of the muscle-building drug had been detected in each case.

“They have to distinquish whether it was a natural steroid produced in the body or exogenous,” he said.

Tytler said Rani had demanded ‘B’ samples be tested. The results are expected by Thursday.

OCA medical committee chairman Yushiro Kuorda said there had been no other positive tests at the Asian Games.

“There have been no other drugs cases at the Games,” he said, adding that “it is important to get this matter dealt with quickly”.

A distraught Rani said after the hearing that she would never knowingly use drugs.

“I haven’t done anything, I haven’t done anything,” she said, adding that she had “a personal problem but I can’t say what”.

In 1998 Sri Lanka’s star sprinter Susanthika Jayasinghe, who won the 100m here before pulling out of the 200m with a hamstring injury, tested positive to nandrolone.

But she was later cleared after convincing the authorities that Ovral, the drug she used for her menstrual cycle, contained natural compounds similar to the banned substance.

It is the second major competition that Indian athletes have failed doping tests following the disqualification of two weightlifters from the Manchester Commonwealth Games in July.

They were stripped of their medals but Kuorda said no decision on whether to strip Rani of hers would be made until after the results of her ‘B’ tests.

If the ‘B’ sample confirms the earlier tests, Rani faces a mandatory two-year suspension under IIAAF rules.

She cannot expect a sympathetic hearing if she argues that the banned drug entered her system unwittingly, which is not a defence under the IAAF and IOC’s ‘strict liability’ rules.—AFP