Asian champion runner banned for 4 years for doping

India’s Gomathi Marimuthu waves her national flag after winning the women’s 800m race on the second day of the 23rd Asian Athletics Championships at Khalifa International Stadium in the Qatari capital Doha on April 22, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

MONACO — Asian champion runner Gomathi Marimuthu was banned Friday for four years for doping and stripped of her 800-meter title.

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

Marimuthu tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone at the 2019 Asian track championships in Qatar in April.

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.

Marimuthu can challenge the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.