Aug 6, 2009, 13:36 GMT
Berlin - Five-time Olympic speed skating champion Claudia Pechstein is to use what she believes are several procedural errors by the ruling body ISU in an attempt to overturn a two-year ban handed down for doping.
The 37-year-old German has protested her innocence and told a press conference Thursday in Berlin that eight of the 20 blood test results used by the ISU were not identical with that of the athlete.
Pechstein was recently banned for two years by the ISU for abnormally high levels of reticulocytes (immature red blood cells) on several occasions, including the allround world championships in February in Norway.
However, Pechstein also claims that the same sample taken on April 15 produced different results with a German laboratory in Kreischa measuring a reticulocyte value of 2.4 per cent compared to 1.3 per cent from one in Lausanne, Switzerland.
'It's possible to go crazy if you just sat at home and read the headlines. I have 'doping' stamped on my forehead even though I have done nothing,' said Pechstein. 'I've been through hell in the last few months.'
Pechstein, who never submitted a positive test, has submitted an appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The most decorated German Winter Olympian with five gold, two silver and two bronze medals, is the first athlete to be banned over screenings in the biological passport, which is also other sports such as cycling and various ski sports.
The issues will likely be at the centre of the CAS hearing set to take place in autumn.
'I am confident that CAS will decide in our favour on the grounds of this new information,' said the athlete's lawyer Simon Bergmann.
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