A Chinese court has declared runner Sun Yingjie innocent of doping after a former training partner confessed to spiking her kiwi juice with the banned steroid androsterone, domestic media said on Monday.
Sun, one of China's brightest track hopes for the 2008 Olympics, tested positive for the drug in October after coming second in the women's 10,000 metres at China's National Games -- a day after she won the Beijing international marathon and passed a doping test.
She was banned from competition for two years by the Chinese Athletic Association and stripped of her silver medal.
But Sun rallied by filing a lawsuit accusing Yu Haijiang, a Chinese runner with whom she used to train, of planting the steroids in her bottle of juice, the Beijing Times said.
Yu admitted to the court in northeast Heilongjiang province that he had sprinkled the substance in Sun's drink, but said he had only done so with good intentions and had no idea the drug was banned, the newspaper reported.
"I just wanted to help Sun Yingjie because she is my idol," Xinhua news agency quoted Yu as telling the court.
Following the court's decision on Friday, the Chinese Athletic Association was looking into Sun's case but had not lifted its ban, it said on its Web site, athletic.sport.org.cn.
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The World Anti-Doping Code, which China has adopted, holds that athletes who prove they did not intentionally take illegal substances can have their terms of ineligibility reduced, but Sun is still likely to face a one-year ban from competition.
China used to have a reputation for doping, but has been working hard to clean up its act, particularly ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.