Posted: May 19, 2006

Athletics: Youngquist Drops Doping Appeal

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced today that marathoner Deeja Youngquist has withdrawn her pending appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, effectively accepting the decision of the American Arbitration Association/North American Court of Arbitration for Sport which ruled that she committed a first doping violation for testing positive for recombinant human Erythropoietin (r-EPO).

Youngquist, 29, of Albuquerque, N.M., tested positive for r-EPO during an out-of-competition test conducted by USADA on March 16, 2004 in advance of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the women's marathon in St. Louis, Mo., on April 3. Youngquist finished 8th in 2:34:21. She is now officially disqualified from that competition, and must forfeit all competitive results and winnings since the date of the test. She will remain suspended through December 4, 2006.

In her appeal, Younqquist challenged the validity of the r-EPO test used by the WADA-accredited laboratory at the University of California at Los Angeles. Youngquist’s withdrawal of her appeal follows the recent ruling rendered by CAS in the arbitration between the IAAF and Eddy Hellebuyck which upheld the scientific validity and accuracy of the r-EPO test as used by the UCLA laboratory.

A synthetic hormone, r-EPO stimulates the body’s production of red blood cells, thereby increasing oxygen transport and aerobic power. r-EPO is a prohibited substance under the rules of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the international federation for the sport of track and field, and USADA, both of which adopted the World Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List.

Comment on this story.

Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest