Engquist admits she might fail dope test

STOCKHOLM, NOV. 6. Sweden's Ludmila Engquist, the Russian-born former Olympic and World champion over 100 metres hurdles, has admitted she will fail a doping test, the Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet said.

The 37-year-old, who fought off breast cancer in 1999 before retiring from athletics to become a bobsleigher, is calling off a bid to compete for her adopted country at next year's Salt Lake City winter Olympics.

``I have been tested in Lillehammer (Norway) and I know that test will be positive,'' Aftonbladet's website quoted Engquist as saying. She admitted having used banned anabolic steroids, the paper said.

``This is shocking and terrible,'' the Swedish Tt news agency quoted Stefan Lindeberg, chairman of Sweden's Olympic committee, as saying. ``I can't believe that it's true...I can't understand what she has been thinking about,'' he added.

Sven Ake Enochson, head of sponsorship in Sweden at car maker Audi, one of the Swedish bobsleigh team's main sponsors, told Tt: ``this is incredible and regrettable.'' He said she had been ``an example for so many.''

Competing for Russia, Engquist won the women's 100 metres hurdles at the Tokyo World championships in 1991 but in 1993 she was banned for four years after failing a steroids test.- Reuters

Sweden's Ludmila Engquist celebrates her third place in the women's 100m hurdles final at the IAAf World championship in Seville in this August 28, 1999 file photo. Engquist admitted she will fail a doping test and will not compete as a bobsleigher in the winter Olympics.

- AP

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