World 1500m champion Abeba Aregawi fails out-of-competition drug test
Last Updated: 29/02/16 9:57pm
World 1500m champion Abeba Aregawi has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned substance, the Swedish Athletics Federation has confirmed.
A spokesman for the Federation says Aregawi tested positive in an out-of-competition test conducted by the IAAF, and that a B sample will be analysed in due course.
Aregawi won the world title in Moscow in 2013 in a race in which Great Britain's Hannah England finished fourth but there is no suggestion Aregawi's performance in that race is under scrutiny.
The Ethiopia-born Aregawi began competing for Sweden in 2012 and also went on to win the world indoor title in Sopot in 2014.
Stefan Olsson, general secretary of Sweden's national federation said: "It is with dismay and extreme disappointment we have to make this statement.
"We are totally opposed to all forms of cheating, doping and illicit substances. We have zero tolerance and this is totally unacceptable."
Aregawi's Dutch manager Jos Hermens told the Expressen newspaper: "We can't understand it. We are trying to work out what has happened. It's very strange."
