Cakir-Alptekin stripped of Olympic gold for doping

By Brian Homewood BERNE (Reuters) - Turkey's Asli Cakir-Alptekin has been stripped of the 2012 Olympic women's 1,500 metres gold medal and banned for eight years for a doping offence, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Monday. CAS said "abnormal values" were found in blood samples collected from the athlete between July 2010 and October 2012. Although Cakir was cleared of doping violations by the Turkish Athletics Federation in December 2013, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) disagreed with the ruling and referred the case to CAS. Monday's announcement followed a negotiated settlement between the IAAF, the Turkish federation and the athlete, CAS said. Cakir, 29, had already served a two-year suspension in 2004 after a positive dope test at the world junior championships. "All competitive results obtained by the athlete from 29 July 2010 onwards are disqualified and all related titles, awards, medals, points and appearance money are forfeited," said CAS. "This includes in particular the Olympic gold medal won in London in 2012 and the gold medal won at the European championships in the same year." (Editing by Tony Jimenez)