IAAF, world athletics federation, has confirmed the three-year suspension of Belgian Mohammed Mourhit, a double world cross-country champion and holder of three European records, for failing a doping test, an official statement said today. The 31-year-old runner underwent an out-of-competition test on May 3 that showed the use of EPO, or Erythropoietin, an illegal endurance-boosting substance.Mourhit’s Belgian LBFA federation proposed a three-year ban, which has been confirmed by IAAF over the weekend. It added that Mourhit, holder of the European 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 records, plans to appeal the sentence. Moroccan-born Mourhit became a Belgian national in July 1997 and won the cross-country championships in Villamoura in 2000 and in Ostend, Belgium, in 2001.
