ATHLETICS:Not for the first time an Irish athlete has probably been denied a championship title because a victorious opponent was on drugs.

The Turkish runner Binnaz Uslu is now confirmed to have failed a drugs test two months ago, which may not surprise Ireland's Fionnuala Britton, or indeed anyone else, but it does come too late to confirm Britton as European gold medallist - an honour she clearly deserves.

Uslu was the burly, aggressive-looking runner who finished ahead of Britton in the under-23 race at the European cross-country championships in Italy back on December 10th. At the time Britton was well pleased with her silver medal, knowing she was the only one to truly test the Turk. At the same time, rumours were circulating about Uslu's credibility, not least because her general appearance was alarmingly unfeminine.

Those rumours were proven true after Uslu produced a positive drugs test taken by the IAAF at a Turkish training camp in Antalya on March 13th.

The illegal substance has not yet been named but Uslu has been handed a two-year ban, and her coach Yahya Sevüktekin has been called before the IAAF disciplinary committee to answer further charges.

Turkish athletics has fast gained a reputation for drug offenders, and Uslu is the fifth athlete from that country to be handed a ban in recent years, the most notorious being their middle-distance star Süreyya Ayhan.

Uslu will, however, remain the European under-23 champion, despite the now obvious questions about the validity of her title claim.

Athletics Ireland have been closely monitoring the developments,and are resigned to the sad fact Britton was probably denied the European gold medal by a drugs cheat and there is nothing they can do about it.

"We had been waiting full details of the case," explains Liam Hennessy, the high-performance chairman and international secretary.

"And we now know the Turkish runner has been confirmed positive. Unfortunately at this stage it seems there is simply nothing we can do about changing the results of the European cross-country.

"These bans can only start from the date of the positive test, unless proven otherwise. That's due process, as disappointing as it is.

"The World Anti-Doping Agency rules have to be specific on this. There is no appeal process for someone like Fionnuala, and that's really hard luck on her.

"I can't say no one had suspicions about this athlete in the first place, but of course everyone has to be taken as clean until proven otherwise."

On the day Britton had run a brave race, crossing the line within nine seconds of Usluand 15 seconds ahead of the third-placed finisher - who, coincidentally, was another Turk, Turkan Erismis.

And another athlete feeling very hard done by right now must be Britain's Aine Hogan, who finished fourth.

Britton went on to finish a brilliant 14th in the senior World Cross Country in Kenya in March, the third-best European, and Hennessy at least sees Uslu's positive test as confirming Britton as one of Ireland's best distance-running prospects.

"The only good thing about this situation is that at least it proves they are catching the cheats, and not afraid to go after the winners," he said. "And the other thing is that is does offer great encouragement to Fionnuala. She was the only one able to chase that Turkish runner on the day and came very close to beating her.

"In ways then that makes her performance even more impressive and again underlines the great potential she has."

Among the other Irish athletes who could identify with Britton's disappointment are Sonia O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan.

O'Sullivan was run out of the medals over 3,000 metres at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart by three Chinese athletes from the infamous Ma Junren stable. Although the runners in question never failed a drugs test, they remained under a cloud of suspicion.

Coghlan's fourth-place finish over 5,000 metres at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow came just behind Finland's bronze medallist, Kaarlo Maaninka, who later admitted to blood doping, though it was not illegal at the time.

Meanwhile, the domestic athletics season gains speed tomorrow with the annual AAI Games, to be staged at the Sligo IT track (starting at 1.30pm).

The event was due to act as the trials for next month's European Cup and yet none of the Irish contenders are set to compete, which may force Athletics Ireland into a stricter selection policy in the future.