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Kaori Yoshida's Suspension for Positive Test at Honolulu Marathon Extended to Two Years

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2013/08/21/kiji/K20130821006458170.html

translated by Brett Larner

The Japan Sports Arbitration Agency announced on August 20 that it had approved an appeal from the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) to increase the suspension of marathoner Kaori Yoshida, 32, for a positive drug test at last December's Honolulu Marathon from one year to two years.  It is the first time arbitration of a case involving a doping violation has resulted in more severe punishment for the athlete.  Testing indicated that Yoshida had taken the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO) which acts to increase stamina, but accepting her explanation that the drug had unknowingly been part of a medicine she had been prescribed to treat anemia, the sentencing panel entrusted with handling JADA's findings gave her a shorter than usual suspension of only one year.  JADA appealed the sentence on the grounds that Yoshida did not exercise sufficient caution about what she was taking.

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