Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Honolulu Marathon women's winner tests positive

I had all these ideas of things to blog about, but then this "breaking news" came across my email via Google Alert, a day late. According to an article in The Honolulu Advertiser, Lyubov Denisova, defending champion and course recordholder of the Honolulu Marathon, tested positive for elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio.

I love how Honolulu's newspaper is called the Advertiser, which I kept typoing as "appetizer," and that they consider running news as breaking news. I'll stop digressing now.

Back to Denisova, according to her publicist, Denisova bought a supplement over the internet instead of a GNC to save money. "She read that it would increase her oxygen capacity and increase muscle strength, and she thought that it was legal to use. Her English is limited so she didn't understand. She should have called me or the Russian (Track and Field) Federation, but she didn't." That's innocent enough. I guess she's not sponsored by GNC.

"She takes responsibility for this. She knows she is responsible for everything she puts in her body." That's a nice change. Floyd, listen up.

She bought the stuff in January and was tested positive in March. So, her race results from March on would be voided. That's fair. But the Honolulu Marathon took place in December, and she wasn't tested then, so she keeps the title, record, and prize money. I'm surprised by that, but I'm not sure if anything could be done about it. The Honolulu Marathon organizers are pissed, which might be why this was at one point yesterday "breaking news." She is banned from the race forever.

All the info I have I got from the Advertiser article Honolulu Marathon women's winner tests positive and Marathon Winner Caught Using Drugs, which includes a good rant by the race president.

2 comments:

noah said...

keep in mind, it wasn't the things that Floyd put _in_ his body that caused the problems.

Helen said...

oh, that's right. hehe!