Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009

BEIJING (AP) Chinese women's 100-meters champion Wang Jing has tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and faces a lifetime ban from the Chinese athletics federation.

The 21-year-old Wang will be stripped of the 100-meters title she won at the National Games last Thursday, games spokesman Sun Yuanfu said Monday.

Wang's urine sample showed elevated levels of testosterone, Sun said, without giving details.

The athlete from the southeastern province of Fujian will be expelled from the games and barred from the 200-meters final for which she had also qualified, Sun said. Wang was a finalist in the 200 at the 2006 world junior championships.

The usual suspension in such circumstances is two years.

But Chinese Athletics Administration Center vice director Shen Chunde told domestic media Monday that Wang could be banned from the sport for life. She has the right to appeal.

Wang has accepted the outcome and will not ask for a second test on her "B" sample, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

However, the agency quoted her as denying having taken drugs and calling for an investigation. Wang said she "strongly asked the concerned bodies to investigate the whole case and tell everybody why my sample tested positive."

Wang, who was eliminated in the first round of the 100 at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing last year and has a personal best time of 11.42 seconds, is the third athlete at the National Games to fail drug testing following pistol shooter Li Jie and rower Guo Linna. All are women.

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