Sport guardian condemns athlete's 'cheating'

The Sports Tribunal yesterday suspended athlete Liza Hunter-Galvan for two years, after a second 'B' sample tested positive for EPO. Photo / Getty Images

An athlete who forced her way into the New Zealand Olympic squad is today beginning a two-year drug suspension for "a deliberate act of cheating".

US-based marathon runner Liza Hunter-Galvan yesterday admitted using the banned drug erythropoietin (EPO) three times, saying she did not realise it was illegal.

But Drug Free Sport chief executive Graeme Steel said last night that Hunter-Galvan knew what she was doing.

He described her actions as "a deliberate act of cheating" which harmed the image of New Zealand sport.

"Athletes like Sarah Ulmer, Hamish Carter, the [Evers-Swindell] twins and Valerie Vili not only compete cleanly, but go to extra lengths to promote clean sport," he said.

"That is an important image for New Zealand athletes, and if relatively high-profile and well-performed athletes choose to cheat, that puts a significant dent at the image they work hard to create," Mr Steel said.

The Sports Tribunal yesterday suspended the Olympic and Commonwealth Games athlete for two years, after a second "B" sample tested positive for EPO, a natural hormone that regulates the production of red blood cells.

Artificial EPO increases the level of red blood cells and improves athletes' performance in endurance events.

Hunter-Galvan had an out-of-competition drug test on March 23.

A laboratory report on May 21 said the "A" sample showed EPO.

The two-year ban is backdated to May 29, the date of her provisional suspension.

Hunter-Galvan is the first New Zealand athlete to fail a drug test since Russian-born pole vaulter Denis Petouchinsky tested positive for the steroid stanozolol and was stripped of the silver medal he won at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

He was also banned from athletics for four years.

In a statement issued through Californian athletics lawyer Howard Jacobs, Hunter-Galvan, a mother of four, said she accepted full responsibility for her actions.

She said that in February, she discussed injectable vitamins and amino acids with a male athlete, who recommended a product called Recormon.

The next day, she bought Recormon over the counter at a pharmacy. Soon after, she researched the product and found it was a brand of EPO.