Ban my drug cheat rival: Golden girl Kelly raises a storm over doping

Tainted: Kelly Sotherton objects to Ukrainian Lyudmyla Blonska

Britain's gold medal hope, Kelly Sotherton, has launched a fresh attack on her principal rival in the heptathlon, Lyudmyla Blonska, insisting that the Ukrainian should be banned from the Olympic Games because she failed a drugs test in 2003.

And the most senior authority on anti-doping affairs in the Olympic movement, Dr Arne Ljungqvist, has backed her stance, saying that he hopes Sotherton wins the gold medal next weekend to put drug cheats in their place.

Blonska failed a test for the banned steroid stanozolol in 2003 but, unlike British sprinter Dwain Chambers, she is allowed to compete in Beijing because only Britain, Norway and China ban drug cheats from their teams. It means the International Olympic Committee may be in the embarrassing position of honouring Blonska, whose offence was as serious as that of Chambers, with one of the first athletics gold medals to be awarded next Saturday.

Under current rules, which were toughened up last year, Blonska would not be allowed to compete in the Olympics, but the rules cannot be applied retrospectively.

Sotherton denounced Blonska, who has the best score of all the competitors in Beijing, after the Ukrainian beat her to the silver medal in the world championships last year in Japan, where Sotherton came third.

And the 31-year-old, one of Britain's best hopes for an athletics gold medal, renewed her attack last week, saying: 'It would definitely be sweeter to beat her in Beijing because I believe she shouldn't be at the Olympics Games, especially with the trials we have had in Britain over Dwain Chambers.

'It's unfair. We're stopping people going because of our by-law but other people are going to the Olympics. It is hard to digest because she shouldn't be there but the only way to deal with it is to beat her. 'I will speak out again because I'm in a situation where I can say how I feel and I get an audience. Immediately after the competition is the best time to say it.

'Some people said I shouldn't have spoken out last year and that I should have enjoyed receiving my medal. I was enjoying my medal but do you know what? I could have had a silver and Jessica Ennis, who finished fourth, could have had a bronze.

'I said how I felt but it didn't take anything away from the fact that I had a bronze medal and if that happened again, I would do it again.'

Ljungqvist, the head of the IOC's Medical Commission and vicepresident of the World Anti-Doping Authority, said: 'Let's hope Kelly does it and wins. Of course, it would be better if athletes like her (Blonska) weren't here in Beijing but we have to abide by the rules. But I think Kelly should be encouraged to speak out and I wish more athletes would do so.

'Too few do. I welcomed the statement Kelly made last year, because it came from the heart. She is among the athletes we wish to protect.

'The whole philosophy of antidoping is to protect those athletes who are clean so they are not forced to compete against athletes who are cheating. The change of rules shows we do not wish the people who have committed these offences here at the Games.'

Under current anti-doping rules, Blonska would have received a fouryear ban from 2003 until 2007 and then would have been barred from the following Olympic Games in 2008. However, when she tested positive there was a more lax regime and she received a two-year ban from athletics and no ban from the Olympic Games.

Even more galling for Sotherton and her fellow competitors is that Ljungqvist believes that Blonska may still be benefiting from stanozolol - the drug at the centre of the Ben Johnson scandal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics - even though she took it five years ago.

A doctoral thesis published last year at the University of Umea in Sweden showed that the benefits of steroids last for at least four years and have resulted in the rule change allowing for a four-year ban.

'The scientific evidence shows quite clearly that the muscular changes in people on steroid regimes last well beyond the two years, even for three or four years,' said Ljungqvist.

'I believe it may last for even longer but we don't know exactly. But with the scientific evidence, I could go to the World Anti-Doping Authority and ask for a four-year ban.'

It could explain why Blonska has improved since coming back from her drug ban.

Her legal best before testing positive was 6,316 points, but last year at the world championships she scored 6,832 points.

Sotherton added: 'She failed a drug test scoring 6,300 points and four years later she's scoring 500 more clean. I don't understand how that happens.'

Blonska has never spoken publicly about her doping shame but when quizzed last year about her ban she said that she had taken a break from athletics to become a mother.