Yegorova has all-clear to face Szabo

Olga Yegorova, whose positive test for the banned blood-booster EPO last month was invalidated on a technicality, was yesterday cleared to take part in the World Championships here following a subsequent test which has come up negative.

But the International Association of Athletics Federations announced that the out-of-competition testing it conducted on 30 to 40 athletes in the week before the Championships began had shown that one as yet unnamed competitor who has already taken part had taken EPO and now faces a two-year ban.

Yegorova's inclusion in the 5,000 metres, which was due to get underway last night, has been a source of continuing controversy, initially prompting the Olympic champion, Gabriela Szabo, to say that she would boycott the event if the Russian were allowed to take part. Szabo has subsequently back-tracked on her statement and was due to run in the same heat as Yegorova.

The newly-instituted tests for EPO which the IAAF has carried out here involved an initial blood analysis which indicated whether there were grounds to investigate further through a more costly and time-consuming urine test which can show definitively whether EPO – a naturally occurring substance – has been introduced to the blood artificially.

Of those tested, seven showed up blood profiles which warranted follow-up tests, including Yegorova. But Arne Ljungqvist, the head of the IAAF Doping Commission, accepted earlier this week that the urine tests were only likely to detect EPO if it had been taken in the three days before the sample was taken.

Were any athlete seeking to gain an unfair advantage through taking EPO, which improves endurance by increasing the number of oxygen- carrying red blood cells in the body, they would have had to be either foolish or careless to have done so immediately before a Championships where it was known that testing would take place.

Of the seven athletes whose tests were followed up, only one has been confirmed as positive for EPO.

Once Ljungqvist had effectively spelled out the situation, it seemed highly unlikely that Yegorova would be caught by another positive test. Her initial test, taken after she had won the Paris Golden League 3,000m in 8 minutes 23.75 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year, produced an EPO positive from the urine test. But Paris officials neglected to take the blood sample from her that was necessary to corroborate their finding.

The error was not disclosed publicly until last Saturday, when an embarrassed Ljungqvist had to admit that Yegorova could not be prevented from competing. News that seven "borderline" cases had been thrown up by the IAAF's pre-Championship testing programme, and that Yegorova was one of them, caused some officials to speculate that her suspension was imminent. But such has not proved to be the case.

Szabo, who won the 1500m title here on Tuesday, said earlier that she had changed her mind about running due to popular opinion. "It is a very emotional decision for me," she said. "I wanted the people to know that I was never afraid of the Russian. If I do not compete in the 5,000m, in a few months the people will forget what happened and only remember the winner."

* Haile Gebrselassie's eight-year unbeaten record over 10,000 metres was brought to an end by Kenya's Charles Kamathi on Wednesday in a result which was even more of a shock than Marion Jones' 100m defeat earlier in the week.

Gebrselassie's reign brought to an end, Hansen reaches final, page 26