Asian champion runner Gomathi Marimuthu banned for 4 years for doping

Asian Champion middle distance runner Gomathi Marimuthu was suspended on Friday for four years by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for doping and stripped of her Asian Athletics Championships 800-meter title.

The 31-year-old runner will be banned until May 2023 and disqualified from all races in a two-month period last year, the AIU said.

She tested positive for anabolic steroid nandrolone at the 2019 Asian championships in April.

The announcement on Friday came after her `B` sample also returned positive for nandrolone.It followed three more positive tests from samples taken in India in the previous month.

Those test results were confirmed after she won the Asian title.

Gomathi had clocked a personal best time of 2 minutes 02.70 seconds in the women`s 800m race in Asian Championships last year.

She defeated the likes of China`s Asian Games champion Wang Chunyu and Kazakhstan`s former two-time Asiad winner Margarita Mukasheva to become the first Indian to bag gold in women`s 800m event in the competition.

All of Gomathi`s competition results between March 18 and May 17, 2019, stand annulled.

The Tamil Nadu athlete`s medals, titles, ranking points and prize, and appearance money are to be forfeited as well.Marimuthu can now appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).