The British Olympic Association (BOA) automatically bans anyone who committed an anti-doping violation from again representing Team GB, although there is a right of appeal. Ohuruogu initially said she might quit athletics but she is already considering an appeal.

"We're going to let the dust settle and she's going to appeal this, " said coach Lloyd Cowan. "I'm disgusted at the punishment; it's very harsh.

She's been treated exactly the same as those who have committed very serious drugs violations. No-one seems to have taken into account that she has never failed a test either after a race or out of competition.

They've treated her very badly.

Christine cried for over two hours yesterday as her family and I tried to console her. 'How can they do this me', she was continually saying."

Ohuruogu's offence will now see her lose lottery funding and just as importantly, the medical back-up provided by UKA under their worldclass performance plan.

HAYDEN STRENGTHENS GRIP ON CHAMPIONSHIP
US world championship leader Nicky Hayden grabbed pole for the Australian MotoGP with a blistering late lap in qualifying at Phillip Island. The Honda rider lapped the 4.4km circuit in one minute 29.02 seconds, the fastest time of the weekend.

Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano was 0.23 secs back in second, ahead of title holder Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in 1.29.27. Hayden's teammate Dani Pedrosa, second in the title race, could only manage the 10th fastest time of the session. Italians Marco Melandri and Loris Capirossi, the only other contenders, were seventh and 13th respectively.

Hayden leads the world title race from Pedrosa by 22 points with four races remaining.

Rossi, who is chasing a sixth victory on the Australian circuit, is third, 26 points behind the American. Hayden, 25, was happy with his fourth MotoGP pole, but said: "I need to find some better grip and better race pace. We've got some work to do, no doubt."

PIQUET JR SET FOR RENAULT DEBUT
Nelson Piquet Jr is to make his testing debut for the Renault Formula One Team at Silverstone next week. Renault's test driver for next season, Piquet "nished runnerup to Lewis Hamilton in the GP2 series and will tests at the Northamptonshire circuit alongside Renault's 2007 race driver Heikki Kovalainen. Piquet said: "I am really looking forward to my first test next week with Renault. I like Silverstone very much and I have driven there a lot so it's good that I don't have to worry about learning the track, I can just focus on the car. I am happy that I am getting three full days of testing because it will be more car time than any other F1 car I've driven, and I am looking forward to driving a front-running car like the R26 for the first time. It will be a great chance to learn as much as I can and get to know everybody at the team."

IRISH MEN EXCEL IN MANCHESTER EVENT
The Irish dominated the men's 30-34 3000m pursuit yesterday at the UCI World Masters Track Championships in Manchester Velodrome, putting on a spectacular performance. Ray Clarke (Worldwide Cycles) from Clonmel, bettered his bronze last year to win the silver medal and Simon Coughlan (Donamon Dynamos) from Athlone took bronze. The closest race of the evening saw Joel Stewart of Great Britain win gold when he crossed the line in 3.36.293 minutes with Clarke a fraction of a second behind in 3.36.521.

Only half a second separated the two riders in the qualification heats and in the hard fought final, Clarke was fasted off the start taking an early lead of 0.5 second over Stewart after the first kilometre, which came down to 0.4 seconds after two and Stewart barely overhauled the advantage over the final lap.

Coughlan beat Ed Nicholson of Great Britain in the run off for bronze in a time six seconds faster than his qualification round. This is a phenomenal performance from the Irish in a very competitive category, especially considering that the riders did not have the advantage of training on an indoor velodrome in Manchester.

CHAMPION WITTER TARGETING HATTON
Junior Witter's promoter Mick Hennessy is confident he can make a British superfight with Ricky Hatton next year. Bradford's Witter claimed the vacant WBC light welterweight title with a unanimous decision over America's DeMarcus Corley in London on Friday. Former two-weight world champion Hatton is set to fight for his old IBF belt against Juan Urango in January.

"It could be the biggest fight in British history and it should happen in spring or early summer, " said Hennessy. "It's my understanding that Ricky's gone on record and said that if Junior wins the WBC belt, he'll fight him, and I believe him when he says that. The logical place would be somewhere like Manchester."