The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) has asked its arbitration panel to decide whether former world champion Mary Slaney is guilty of doping. Speaking from the federation's headquarters in Monaco yesterday, spokesman Giorgio Reineri said the IAAF's council had decided by postal vote to refer the case to its arbitration panel.
He said it would be probably be some months before the panel assembled all the necessary documents.
Slaney, champion over both the 1,500 and 3,000 metres at the inaugural World Championships in 1983, tested positive at the 1996 US championships for excessive levels of the male sex hormone testosterone. She has consistently denied taking any banned substance.
Last September the US governing body cleared the 39-year-old of any offence but the IAAF doping commission called for further scientific evidence before deciding whether to accept the ruling.
Reineri said the doping commission had since studied conflicting opinions from experts throughout the world and finally recommended that the case go to arbitration. "This is not a crusade against Slaney," he said. "But there are a lot of differing opinions."
