Australia's canoeing champion banned for doping violation

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's 2012 London Olympics gold medallist Tate Smith has been banned for two years for doping violations, ruling the canoe kayaker out of next year's Rio Games. Tate was part of the team that won the K4 gold medal at the London Games and his out-of-competition samples, provided in Hungary on July 21-22 last year, tested positive for the steroid stanozolol. The 33-year-old had appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which handed down a two-year ban, the Australian Olympic Committee said in a statement. Smith's ban has been backdated to the day he was provisionally suspended and he will be ineligible to compete until Sept. 8, 2016. (Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Peter Rutherford)