SHOT PUT STAR RAUKTYS IS HIT WITH TWO-YEAR BAN FOR DOPING

IRISH shot put champion Tomas Rauktys has been suspended for two years after testing positive for the banned substance Stanozolol. Lithuanian Rauktys (below), shot put record holder for Dublin club Clonliffe Harriers, tested positive for the anabolic steroid at July’s National Championships where he won three gold medals. ‘We are very disappointed with this news,’ Athletics Ireland chief executive John Foley told Sportsmail after confirmation of Rauktys’s positive result. Stanozolol was famously the substance Ben Johnson tested positive for in 1988, which resulted in the Canadian sprinter being stripped of his gold medal at the Seoul Olympics. Rauktys has dominated the Irish championships in both shot put and discus since relocating to Ireland from Lithuania in 2010. ‘We shall review the national championship results for 2013,’ said Foley. ‘The medals for the shot put, discus and 56lb hammer will be redistributed.’ Sean Breathnach of Galway City Harriers is the big winner from today’s news and will be promoted to shot put gold, discus bronze and hammer silver. ‘I cannot stress how disappointed everyone in athletics is by this news,’ added Foley. ‘On the positive side it proves that our anti-doping controls are strong.’ Jamaica and Kenya’s testing programmes have came into question recently and Irish officials believe their heavyhanded approach is being justified. ‘We carried out 787 out of and in competition tests in 2012,’ Paul Farrelly of the Irish Sports Council revealed. ‘We only give headline figures per WADA’s guidelines.’ Irish Sports Council figures state that 431 out of competition tests occurred in 2012. World champion Rob Heffernan, a fan of the rigorous testing, was visited by the Sports Council testers 18 times before his successful trip to Moscow. Meanwhile, Derval O’Rourke is still awaiting confirmation that she will be upgraded to European indoor bronze after Turkish winner Navin Yanit failed a drugs test in February. The IAAF handed Navin Yanit a two-year ban on August 28. Yanit’s failed dope test occurred on February 8, three weeks before the European Indoor Championships. O’Rourke has previously expressed her annoyance at such a long wait, with European Athletics awaiting official confirmation from the world body, before deciding on action. The IAAF’s process has been delayed over the last number of months, with IAAF sources accrediting the delays due to changes at the Turkish governing body. A drugs crisis has engulfed Turkish athletics with Yanit becoming the 32nd Turk to be banned this year. Thirty-one athletes received two-year bans from Turkish athletics chiefs in July. O’Rourke was expected to be upgraded from fourth to bronze with Alina Talay of Belarus moving to gold and Italy’s Veronica Borsi taking silver.