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Ceplak makes it six
Jolanda Ceplak becomes the sixth top European athlete in recent weeks to be involved in a drugs scandal
WORLD indoor 800m record-holder Jolanda Ceplak has tested positive for EPO, as reported today in French newspaper L'Equipe. Both 'A' and 'B' samples came back positive for the blood-boosting agent after an out-of-competition test in Monaco a few weeks ago.
The Slovenian record-holder is just the latest in a growing list of top European athletes to test positive or be handed bans in the past month. As reported in this week's Athletics Weekly, Russia's Tatyana Lysenko - the world record-holder in the hammer - has tested positive for an oestrogen blocker, as has her training partner, Yekaterina Khoroshikh.
European 400m champion Vanya Satmbolova and European high jump silver medallist Venelina Veneva also tested positive for testosterone earlier in the year. Both Bulgarian athletes are currently in the middle of a debate between the Bulgarian Athletics Federation and the IAAF, and their fate will be decided shortly.
And last week Giuseppe Gibilisco's two-year ban was also confirmed by the Italian Athletics Federation, although the former world pole vault champion had already stated his intentions to retire.
Ceplak burst onto the scene five years ago in sensational fashion. Having dipped inside two minutes on only a handful of occasions before 2002, Ceplak - then aged 25 - obliterated her previous personal best and broke the world indoor record to win the European indoor title with 1:55.82.
During the outdoor season that year she went even faster with 1:55.19 and added the European outdoor gold to her tally. But there was some controversy after the European 800m final in Munich.
Britain's Kelly Holmes - who won bronze behind Ceplak - told the BBC track-side reporter that she was proud to have won her medal "fairly and cleanly". Tabloids jumped on the quote straight away and twisted it into a direct criticism towards Ceplak. Holmes, meanwhile, insisted that there was no malice intended and that she was simply saying she was proud of her own achievements.
Whatever the intention, that moment now seems to have come full circle. And if the test results of Ceplak's come back positive, her win in Munich will be made to appear anything but "fair and clean".
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