The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has increased the ban imposed on Turkish athlete Nevin Yanit from two to three years, following an appeal by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to increase her suspension to four years. On 29 August 2013, the Turkish Athletics Federation (TAF) banned Yanit (pictured) for two years, after stanzolol and testosterone were found in a June 2013 sample she provided.

The three-year sanction will begin from 6 March 2013, despite the CAS panel concluding that Yanit ‘used those substances on multiple occasions between August 2012 and February 2013’. This means that her gold medal for the 100m hurdles, won at the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships from 1-3 March in Gothenburg, will stand.

The CAS Panel partially upheld the IAAF’s request for the suspension to be increased based on IAAF Rule 40.6, which allows a doping sanction to be increased in there are ‘aggravating circumstances’. The IAAF supplied evidence from Yanit’s Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), which led the CAS Panel to conclude that Yanit had ‘committed a separate anti-doping rule violation, namely blood doping, between June 2012 and February 2013’. The CAS said that the full decision would be published on the CAS internet site in the coming weeks.