Shot putter banned for life

Shot putter Miloslav Menc has received a lifetime ban after failing a drugs test for the second time in three years.

The Czech athlete was found to have 23 times the normal level of the banned substance nandrolone after giving a test in an out-of-competition test on 26 April.

The Czech Athletics Association (CAA) had suspended Menc in June.

"We had to ban him," said Miroslav Sevcik, head of the disciplinary commission of the CAA, on Czech radio.

The 31-year-old athlete had received a two-year suspension in 1998 when he tested positive for another banned steriod, stanozolol, in Athens.

Menc, who won bronze at the European Indoor Championship last year, denied taking the drug, claiming he had a naturally high level of the steriod in his body.

"It's a farce," Menc told the private Prima television station.

Menc said he will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.