COLORADO SPRINGS (Colorado), May 21: Deeja Youngquist, eighth in the 2004 US Olympic women's marathon trials, has withdrawn an appeal to accept a two-year ban for EPO doping, the US Anti-Doping Agency announced late on Saturday.

Youngquist, 29, decided not to appeal her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after a US arbitrator upheld her suspension after testing positive for recombinant human Erythropoietin (r-EPO).

Her positive test came March 16, 2004, in an out-of-competition drug test conducted by the US agency before the marathon trials.

The banned substance r-EPO, a synthetic hormone, stimulates body production of red blood cells, increasing oxygen flow and aerobic power.

Younqquist's appeal would have challenged the validity of the r-EPO test used by the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory at the University of California at Los Angeles.

But a recent CAS ruling in Belgian-born US marathoner Eddy Hellebuyck's arbitration upheld the validity and accuracy of the r-EPO test used by the UCLA laboratory, effectively negating Youngquist's challenge as well.

Youngquist forfeits her US Olympic trials result and all results since March 16, 2004. She has served a provisional suspension since Dec 4, 2004, and would be eligible to return next Dec 4.—AFP