Turkish 100-metre hurdles champ banned for doping

Sport

Thursday, August 29, 2013

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Former European 100m hurdles champion Nevin Yanit was handed a two-year suspension by the Turkish Athletics Federation (TAF) after testing positive for banned substances, they announced yesterday.The 2010 and 2012 continental champion had already been suspended along with compatriot and 1500m Olympic champion Asli Cakir Alptekin, while 31 other Turkish athletes were suspended on the eve of the recent World Championships in Moscow.Nevin Yanit finished fifth at the 2012 Olympics and won the European 60m indoor title earlier this year at Gothenburg.“The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) had informed us that Nevin Yanit’s sample taken at the event in Dusseldorf on Feb. 8 tested positive for a banned substance,” read a Federation statement.“After her B sample also tested positive, the Disciplinary Board asked for Yanit’s defence and decided to ban the athlete for two years following deliberations,” continued the statement.She had already been banned from the upcoming Mediterranean Games by the TAF over continued suspicions about doping.Alptekin, who caused a huge surprise with her Olympic triumph faces a lifetime ban as she has already served a two-year suspension for doping in 2004 and the IAAF has confirmed she will be stripped of her title if found guilty.Her compatriot Gamze Balut finished second in the Olympic final with Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain coming home third and Russia’s Tatyana Tomashova fourth and now in a potential position to move up to bronze.A decision on Alptekin is pending.The Turkish capital of Istanbul is a candidate for the 2020 Summer Olympics along with Madrid and Tokyo, with the International Olympic Committee set to announce the host city on September 7 in Buenos Aires.

View the original article here

Turkish 100-metre hurdles champ banned for doping

Verdicts expected in Turkish coup plot trial

News

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Some 275 people — including military officers, politicians and journalists — yesterday were facing verdicts in a landmark trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.The ruling caps a five-year trial that has been a central drama in tensions between the country’s secular elite and Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party.The defendants are accused of plotting high-profile attacks that prosecutors said were aimed at sowing chaos in Turkey to prepare the way for a military coup.The prosecutions have helped Erdogan’s government reshape Turkey’s military and assert civilian control in a country that had seen three military coups since 1960.The defendants are accused of being part of an alleged ultranationalist and pro-secular gang called Ergenekon, which takes its name from a legendary valley in Central Asia believed to be the ancestral homeland of Turks.In thousands of pages of indictment, prosecutors maintained that the gang was behind a series of violent acts — including one in 2006 on a courthouse that killed a judge — that were made to look as though they were carried out by Islamic militants, in a bid to create turmoil and provoke a military intervention.Prosecutors say the gang also plotted to kill Erdogan, Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk and other high-profile figures.The defendants have rejected the accusations.Prosecutors have demanded life prison terms for 64 of the defendants, mostly on terrorism charges. Others face up to 15 years in prison for possession of firearms or membership in Ergenekon.The case has polarised the country between those who see it as an opportunity to unravel a shadowy network of ultranationalists known as the “Deep State” that allegedly acted behind the scenes with impunity, and those who believe it is a government attempt to muzzle Erdogan’s secular-minded foes and undermine Turkey’s secular legacy.Police on Monday blocked hundreds of demonstrators from reaching the courthouse in Silivri, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Istanbul, in a show of solidarity with the defendants.Protesters clash with riot and paramilitary polices as they fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse them outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, yesterday. Some 275 people — including military officers, politicians and journalists — are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government in the fiveyear “Ergenekon” trial and sentenced of up to 47 years or life terms in jails some of the other 254 defendants. (PHOTO:AP)

HOUSE RULES

1. We welcome reader comments on the top stories of the day. Some comments may be republished on the website or in the newspaper – email addresses will not be published.

2. Please understand that comments are moderated and it is not always possible to publish all that have been submitted. We will, however, try to publish comments that are representative of all received.

3. We ask that comments are civil and free of libellous or hateful material. Also please stick to the topic under discussion.

4. Please do not write in block capitals since this makes your comment hard to read.

5. Please don’t use the comments to advertise. However, our advertising department can be more than accommodating if emailed:mailto:advertising@jamaicaobserver.com.

6. If readers wish to report offensive comments, suggest a correction or share a story then please email: community@jamaicaobserver.com.

7. Lastly, read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy

comments powered by

View the original article here

Verdicts expected in Turkish coup plot trial

9 Turkish athletes banned for anabolic steroid use

MONACO (AP) — Nine Turkish track and field athletes have been banned after testing positive for anabolic steroids, the latest doping scandal there during Istanbul’s campaign to win 2020 Olympics hosting rights.

The IAAF said yesterday all had received two-year bans and that six are women, including two teenagers.Six cases involved field athletes testing positive for stanozolol at Turkey’s national university championships held in May at Bursa. Stanozolol is the steroid used by Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.Among those six, three athletes also tested positive for oral turinabol, the steroid used in state-sponsored East German doping programmes in the 1970s and 1980s.The IAAF confirmed the disciplinary cases days after its president, Lamine Diack, suggested Turkish athletics officials “need to clean their house”.“They are bidding for the 2020 Olympics but every few days we have three or four athletes caught for doping,” Diack said in London. He is a member of the International Olympic Committee which on September 7 will choose Istanbul, Madrid or Tokyo as 2020 host.In June, eight Turkish athletes, including 2004 Olympic hammer silver medallist Esref Apak, were caught doping, and dozens more were reported to have tested positive before the Mediterranean Games hosted by Turkey.In May, the IAAF asked the Turkish federation to prosecute cases against Olympic 1,500-metre champion Asli Cakir Alptekin and two-time European 100-metre hurdles champion Nevin Yanit over alleged doping violations.Responding to Diack, the Turkish National Olympic Committee said the series of cases “is not evidence of more cheats”.“It is evidence that we are stepping up to fight this problem more aggressively and coming into line with top-tier sports nations,” the Turkish Olympic body said in a statement.In the latest verdicts, the IAAF said 17-year-old discus thrower Burcu Akmazoglu tested positive for both banned steroids in Bursa. She is suspended from competing through June 13, 2015.A second teenager, 18-year-old hammer thrower Elif Akbas, also tested positive for stanozolol at the student event.An IAAF list of sanctioned athletes shows that stanozolol and oral turinabol were both found in samples taken at Bursa from Kubra Danis, a 22-year-old shot putter, and Gokce Celenk, a 25-year-old discus thrower. Javelin throwers Sarik Bilgin, who is 25, and 21-year-old Gulsum Ozdemir Gunes also tested positive for stanozolol.The IAAF said the other cases involve two field athletes and one runner.Ali Ekber Kayas, a 26-year-old 400-metre runner who competed at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, gave a sample with oxandrolone at a national competition in May 2012. He is suspended through July 2, 2014.Shot-putter Nilgun Ozturk tested positive for methandienone at the same competition, and received the same ban as Kayas.The IAAF said 21-year-old javelin thrower Berkay Tolun tested positive for stanozolol during training in May. His ban expires on June 6, 2015.The Turkish Olympic body acknowledged that more doping cases could follow.“In the short term, the redoubling of (the Turkish anti-doping agency) testing and sanctioning procedures will mean more positive tests,” it said. “We want clean young Turkish athletes winning medals on home soil in 2020.”

View the original article here

9 Turkish athletes banned for anabolic steroid use