IAAF mulls appeal after repeat-offender Onyia gets two-year doping ban

The Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) on Tuesday suspended Josephine Onyia for two years for a positive sample containing the stimulant methylhexanamine at a meeting in Madrid last July. The suspension complies with the minimum penalty laid out in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) regulations for reoffenders.

Onyia, who holds the Spanish record in the 110m hurdles, had completed a two-year ban in March, 2010 after returning a double positive for clenbuterol and methylhexanamine in September 2008. Anti-doping authorities confirmed that the IAAF can appeal Onyia's ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if it deems it insufficient.

IAAF regulations open up an array of possibilities, from a two-year suspension to a lifetime ban, for athletes who are caught again after serving the standard two-year ban for a doping violation. Only if the second offense concerns a minor substance, such as methylhexanamine, and under a series of special circumstances - the athlete showing how the substance entered her body, that it was not performance-enhancing and was not used to mask other substances - laid out in article 40.4 of the regulations, can a reduced ban of two to four years be applied.

Onyia told the RFEA that the substance was in an energy supplement she had been taking but not listed as an ingredient. A Madrid laboratory studied the supplement but found no trace of methylhexanamine. The IAAF will consider the lab report before deciding whether to appeal.