AN IRISH athlete and potential London Olympic qualifier is facing a two-year suspension for a doping offence in what could prove another costly blow to the credibility of the sport.
Martin Fagan, a 28-year-old marathon runner from Mullingar, was informed by Athletics Ireland of an “adverse analytical finding”, the technical term for a positive drugs test.
Fagan is due to attend an adjudication hearing in Dublin on Monday to explain why traces of the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin were found in the A-sample of an out-of-competition doping test taken at his US training base in December.
Fagan may now request to have the B-sample tested in order to back up the initial finding, although sources last night indicated there was likely to be a more immediate outcome to the matter.
Athletics Ireland declined to comment on any details of the case as it is still under due procedure, but one spokesperson indicated Fagan had a “serious” case to answer.
Erythropoietin, better known as EPO, is one of the most common, although largely outdated, methods of performance enhancing, first made notorious in cycling in the 1990s.
Fagan has no previous record of doping offences or suspicions of such. He has struggled with both form and consistency and debilitating injuries since qualifying for the Olympic marathon in Beijing almost four years ago.
In January 2008 Fagan ran two hours, 14 minutes and six seconds in the Dubai marathon – inside the necessary 2:15.00 for Beijing, and a time that still ranks as the 14th fastest Irish marathon of all time. He dropped out of the Olympic marathon through injury, shortly before halfway, and has failed to finish a marathon since.
He has been based at the highaltitude training venue in Flagstaff, Arizona, since 2007 and it was there the out-of-competition test took place. Fagan had been targeting the 2:15.00 that would have qualified him for the London Olympic marathon, and ran well in the Chicago marathon last October, where he appeared on course for about 2:12.00, before suddenly dropping out inside the final mile.
Fagan had next targeted tomorrow’s Houston marathon, in Texas, which is being staged alongside the US Olympic marathon trial.
Fagan last raced in Ireland at the National Track and Field Championships in Santry in August, when he led in the early stages of the 10,000m, before dropping out. He received an Irish Sports Council grant of €12,000 in the international category in 2009, and again in 2010.
Fagan was unavailable for comment last night.