Krabbe wins compensation
from IAAF
Former world champion Katrin Krabbe won compensation in a legal marathon over a doping suspension on Wednesday when the International Amateur Athletic Federation was ordered to pay her over one million marks.
A Munich court ruled that the IAAF should pay the German sprinter, double world champion in 1991, 1.2 million marks ($529,600) in compensation plus four per cent interest for the period running since 1994.
"We have not received any official communication from the court in Germany but we believe this information is correct," IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said, adding the world governing body would almost certainly appeal against the ruling.
"We regret this decision," Reineri added. "Once we have received detail on the motivation of the ruling we will decide whether to appeal. It is practically sure that we will."
Krabbe, 31, claims a suspension imposed on her by the world governing body after she admitted having taken the banned drug clenbuterol in 1992 was illegal.
"I am relieved that this long process has finally ended with a ruling in my favour," she said on Wednesday. "I now hope that the federation [IAAF] will accept it."
The former East German burst into the limelight by winning the 100 and 200 metres titles at the 1991 world championships in Tokyo.
LEGAL PROBLEM
After she admitted taking clenbuterol the following year, the IAAF and the German Athletics Federation (DLV) were unable to impose the mandatory four-year ban on her because of a legal problem within the German federation's rule-book.
Instead the DLV, which has since solved the problem in its rules, suspended Krabbe for one year for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The IAAF added a further two-year ban in 1993 for which Krabbe, who has since given up athletics, was seeking compensation.
Krabbe's lawyer Thomas Summerer, who was aware that the legal battle was likely to continue, said his client and the IAAF would have to share the costs of the procedure.
"It's a lot of money and she will have to pay income tax on it," he told German sports news agency SID. "Unfortunately for her she doesn't live in Monte Carlo, unlike IAAF."
With her good looks and prowess on the track, Krabbe became a German heroine before the doping scandal ruined her brief career.
One of the first top athletes to achieve success for unified Germany after having learned her trade in communist East Germany, the photogenic blonde with the pony tail was voted German Sportswoman of the Year in 1990 in 1991.
A year later she tested positive.
The mother of two boys, aged two and three, she now runs a sports shop in her home town of Neubrandenburg.
