The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has banned Spanish 100m hurdler Josephine Onyia for life, following her third anti-doping rule violation (ADRV). Onyia tested positive for anabolic steroids at the Spanish athletics championships in August last year. She had already served two two-year bans. She tested positive for methylhexanamine and clenbuterol in 2008, and was banned after the IAAF appealed a Spanish athletics federation (RFEA) decision not to sanction her. She also received a two-year ban after testing positive for dimethylpentylamine in 2011.

The IAAF confirmed the sanction through a list (PDF below) of 32 athletes newly sanctioned by the IAAF, published on 23 January. It is usual practice for the IAAF not to ‘announce’ new doping sanctions, but to list them in its Newsletter, which is published ten times a year.

“It is extremely rare, only in the most high profile cases, that the IAAF ever issues statements or press releases about athletes being sanctioned”, said an IAAF spokesperson. ‘All sanctions are officially announced in the IAAF Newsletter. This only details new sanctions, whereas the website’s list of athletes currently serving a period of ineligibility as a result of an anti-doping rule violation under IAAF rules is updated at least once a month. The newsletter is published 10 times a year and usually at the beginning or during the first half of the last week of the month.”