South African long-distance runner Louisa Leballo has been banned from sports for eight years for a doping violation and an attempt to subvert the testing process, the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport (Saids) revealed yesterday.

The 39-year-old was tested out-of-competition by Saids on March 20. An analysis of the urine sample by the doping control laboratory in Belgium returned an adverse analytical finding, revealing the presence of the peptide hormone, Erythropoietin (EPO), the statement said.

It was also alleged that the Pretoria athlete had tried to persuade Saids's doping control officer to cancel the test.

The athlete was charged with an anti-doping rule violation and attempting to subvert the doping control process. Leballo conducted her own defence at the July 19 hearing.

She was given the maximum four-year sanction for each offence and the panel ruled that they should run consecutively, making an eight-year ban.

Leballo has represented South Africa in cross-country and half-marathon events.

In the period between her being tested and then provisionally suspended on May 25 - when the result was returned by the laboratory - Leballo won the Spar Women's 10km Challenge in Cape Town in April.

She finished third in the Two Oceans 21km (April 15).

Saids chief executive Khalid Galant said the finding on Leballo's attempt to subvert the process should serve as a warning to athletes - that attempting to coerce or intimidate a doping control officer is a prosecutable offence.