Moroccan gold medal hope Mariem Alaoui Selsouli fails drugs test

Moroccan gold medal track prospect Mariem Alaoui Selsouli has been thrown out of the Olympic Games after failing a drugs test for the second time in her career.

Athletics' ruling body, the IAAF, said Selsouli had tested positive for the banned diuretic furosemide in Paris earlier this month.

She has been served with a provisional suspension but could be banned for life.

The 28-year-old had been one of the leading contenders for the women's 1,500 metres title, having posted a time of three minutes 56.15 seconds, the fastest in the world this year, at the Paris meeting on July 6.

Selsouli waived the right to have her B sample analysed but still has the right to a hearing.

She served a two-year suspension from 2009-11 for a doping offence, when she was found to have used EPO. A second such offence would lead to a lifetime ban.

The IAAF said yesterday: "IAAF is now in a position to officially confirm that the prohibited substance furosemide (a diuretic) was found in Mrs Alaoui Selsouli's sample collected at the Meeting Areva in Paris on 6 July, 2012.

"Alaoui Selsouli has waived her right to the B analysis, and as a result has now been provisionally suspended from all competition in athletics.

"In accordance with IAAF rules, she still has the right to request a hearing which needs to be held by the Moroccan Athletic Federation within the next three months.

"Until such time, the IAAF will make no further comment on this case."

Selsouli's Paris run was the quickest posted by a woman since 2006.

British marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe was forthright in her opinion of Selsouli when the first reports of her positive test emerged earlier this week.

Radcliffe Tweeted: "World 1500m leader (strike that off) Alaoui Selsouli (MAR) will miss Olympics as she's tested positive at Paris DL. Good riddance, no surprise."

Selsouli won the silver medal in the World Indoor Championships at Istanbul in March.

Nine athletes were named yesterday by the IAAF as having been banned from the sport.

Six - Morocco's Abderrahim Goumri, Irini Kokkinariou from Greece, Turkey's Meryem Erdogan, Russian Svetlana Klyuka and compatriots Nailiya Yulamanova and Yevgenina Zinurova received bans of between two and four years under the biological passport programme, which measures and monitors athletes' blood variables over time.

Bulgarian Inna Eftimova and Ukrainian pair Nataliya Tobias and Antonina Yefremova returned positive tests for synthetic growth hormone and synthetic testosterone respectively, receiving two-year bans.

IAAF president Lamine Diack said: "We will not stint in our resolve to do everything in our power to eradicate cheating."

PA