Turkish Athletics hands doping ban on 31 athletes

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Mehmet Terzi stepped down from the Turkish Athletics Federation last week. DHA photo

The Turkish Athletics Federation’s (TAF) Disciplinary Board banned 31 Turkish athletes including Olympic medalist Eşref Apak, from competitons for two years, a month after announcing they were tested positive for banned substances.

Issuing a statement on its official website, the TAF said, “As the results of the samples taken from athletes during and after the competitions indicate, Turkish National Olympics Committee’s Anti-Doping Commission decided to punish the aforementioned athletes with two-year bans from competitions.”
Banned athletes include Eşref Apak, who won the men’s hammer throw silver in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Stars’ case pending

The TAF statement stressed that the files of the women’s 1500m Olympic champion Aslı Çakır Alptekin, two-time defending European women’s 100m hurdles champion Nevin Yanıt and another Turkish athlete Pınar Saka were not considered due to the ongoing investigation process.

The decisions came a week after Mehmet Terzi stepped down as the TAF chairman amid a series of doping scandals.

As specified in the statement, the names of the athletes banned from competitons for two years are as follows: Hasan Birinci, Kıvılcım Kaya Salman, Semra Türk Akdogan, Büşra Baş, Çağdaş Arslan, Emel Güngor, Ümmuhan Karaçadır, Özge Kurteş, Kaan Şencan, Oğuzhan Demir, Batuhan Buğra Eruygun, İsa Can, Emrah Altunkalem, Dilek Esmer, Tuğçe Şahutoğlu, Elif Yıldırım, Serdar Tamaç, Ebru Yurddaş, Cansu Korur, Furkan Şen, Urfan Özalan, Serhat Soyer, Yeliz Kurt, Simge Olçun, Serkan Lapçin, Berdan Burak Demir, Eşref Apak, Umut Aday, Fatih Eryıldırım, Esen Kızıldağ Kale, Narin Sağlam.