ANKARA, Nov 17: Turkish athlete Sureyya Ayhan, once a European champion, could find herself permanantly banished from the track after she tested positive for banned substances, her second doping scandal in three years, the Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) officials have found two banned substances in urine samples the middle-distance runner provided in September while training in the United States for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the report said. It did not name the substances the 29-year-old Ayhan had tested postive for.

In a written statement to Anatolia from the United States, Ayhan confirmed that her tests had come back positive, but claimed that she had been the victim of foul play by those who did not want her to run in the Beijing Games.

“No athlete in her right mind would take banned substances just a year away from competing,” Ayhan said.

“These (banned) substances have been mixed into my drinks or food outside my control at a moment of absent-mindedness on my part,” she added.

Ayhan became a national hero after emerging from relative obscurity to win the 1500m European title in Munich in 2002. She won the silver medal in the World Championships the following year.

Ayhan withdrew from the 2004 Athens Olympics, citing a hamstring injury, but Turkish media reported at the time that the real reason for her pull-out was a doping scandal in which she allegedly tried to cheat a doping test by submitting someone else’s urine sample.—AFP