Runner Marta Domínguez has been stripped of her status as a Spanish athlete less than three months after the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned her for three years for blood doping ©Getty Images

Runner Marta Domínguez has been stripped of her status as a Spanish athlete less than three months after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) banned her for three years for blood doping and removed her of the gold medal she won in the 3,000 metres steeplechase at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.

Miguel Cardenal Carro, President of Spain’s Sports Council, said in a statement that the decision "to exclude" Domínguez from "high-level sports and athletics" was taken because of doping.

The middle-distance runner was originally provisionally banned for four years by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in July 2013 after abnormalities were found in her athlete biological passport.

She then appealed to the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) Sports Disciplinary Committee in Madrid, who agreed with her explanation for the positive doping test and lifted her suspension.

The IAAF remained adamant Domínguez, who also won two world silver medals over 5,000m, should be banned and contested the decision of the RFEA to CAS in February 2014.

Later that year, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) filed its own appeal, calling for Domínguez to be suspended from competition for four years as previously suggested by the IAAF.

Both WADA and the IAAF provided scientific evidence supporting the adverse findings in her biological passport, but Domínguez insisted CAS did not have the appropriate jurisdiction.

At a hearing in June of last year, CAS found "none of the explanations offered by the RFEA or Marta Domínguez were sufficient for the Panel not to be comfortably satisfied by the scientific evidence presented by WADA and the IAAF’s experts that an anti-doping rule violation had occurred" and that they were able to rule under IAAF rules.

The CAS subsequently found the 40-year-old guilty of an anti-doping violation and she was suspended for a period of three years dating from July 2013.

Marta Dominguez appeared in court in 2010 on suspicion of involvement in a Spanish doping ring
Marta Domínguez appeared in court in 2010 on suspicion of involvement in a Spanish doping ring ©Getty Images

As well as suspending Domínguez for three years, the CAS also ordered her results from August 5, 2009 through to July 8, 2013 be disqualified, including her gold-medal winning performance in Berlin six years ago.

Domínguez has had a turbulent past in the sport after she was arrested in 2010 in connection with Operación Galgo, an investigation by Spanish authorities into an alleged doping ring in the country before being acquitted by a judge following an appearance in court.

She had been accused of providing a fellow athlete with a banned performance-enhancing drug and was the subject of suspicions that she trafficked banned substances.

Domínguez was provisionally removed from her role as an RFEA vice-president as a result of the allegations against her.

The announcement of Domínguez's ban came shortly after Spain was warned it was in danger of being declared "non-compliant" by WADA at its Foundation Board meeting in Colorado Springs unless improvements in their anti-doping policies are made.

The country was one of six, along with Brazil, Belgium, France, Greece and Mexico, placed on a compliance "watch list" and will have to prove it has met certain compliance criteria by March 18.

If these conditions are not met, the independent Compliance Review Committee will recommend that they be declared non-compliant.