Canadian Hammer Thrower To Stay Out


EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) – A Canadian hammer-thrower suspended from Canada's Olympic team after testing positive for an anabolic steroid will remain out of the Sydney Games.

In a written decision released Wednesday by an arbitrator, national champion and national record-holder Robin Lyons admitted to a doping infraction. But Lyons' lawyer, Thomas Cooke, stressed that the admission does not mean she intentionally took a banned substance.

``Robin still vehemently denies taking a banned substance knowingly,'' Cooke said in an interview.

``Right from the very, very first press conference, we acknowledged that there was a possibility that there was a contaminated supplement (in her bloodstream).''

Arbitrator Mark Asbell was to arbitrate the case after the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport suspended Lyons and upheld that decision on appeal. Asbell dismissed the appeal after Lyons and the center agreed on a settlement.

Lyons initially said she was a victim of a faulty testing system but in the Asbell decision agreed the testing was fair. The settlement means she is banned from participating in sports for four years. It notes that she plans to seek a Class 2 reinstatement before an independent adjudicator in the next six months.

Under a Class 2 reinstatement, the athlete will try to prove there were exceptional circumstances surrounding the infraction, said Rachel Corbett, managing director of the Center for Sport and Law at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Lyons tested positive for norandrosterone, a metabolite of nandrolone, at the Canadian Olympic trials in August. Norandrosterone can be found in nutritional supplements.