Adrienne Herzog, twice Bronze medal winner at the European Cross Country Championships, has been banned for two years for elevated testosterone levels, following a 16 February ruling by the Instituut Sport Rechtspraak (HISR). Herzog (pictured) tested positive in March 2014 in the United States, exceeding the permissible relationship between testosterone and epitestosterone. As the two-year ban ends on 14 May 2016, Herzog could still fulfil her dream of competing at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

On June 20 2014, the Dutch athletic union (AU) confirmed that the B sample confirms the result of the A sample. It submitted the case to the HISR , an independent sports law body which arbitrates sports law cases in the Netherlands. On February 18 2015, the HISR found that Herzog had violated Article 3 of the AU’s doping regulations, and the AU imposed a two-year ban.

“The past 10 months have been the most difficult of my life, as I have never knowingly taken any banned substance”, said Herzog in a statement. “I did everything I could to try to prove this fact, and submitted detailed evidence to the hearing panel to prove that my positive test was due to a mistake and that I did not ever use any banned substances. Unfortunately, that evidence appears to have been ignored. I will return to racing when my suspension ends, and I will be successful when I return.”

In an article written in May 2014, Herzog claimed that her testosterone levels were naturally high, due to her genes. In 2004, WADA decided that any testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 4/1 or higher would have to be submitted for Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) analysis. The previously accepted cut-off point was 6/1. Herzog wrote that her A sample ratio was 4.4/1.