The six-time world champion, who won medals at the Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008 Games, had been tied in a legal dispute with the German Equestrian Federation after her horse, El Santo NRW, tested positive for cimetidine - a substance banned by the national governing body - at the Rhineland Championships in Langenfeld in June 2012.

The athlete was handed a six-month ban for the offence in November 2013 but the case has now come to a conclusion, with the body's arbitral tribunal ruling that she only needs to pay the fine and cover all legal costs.

Werth, who said her horse tested positive after having drunk contaminated water due to a problem with her automatic watering system, admitted she was relieved the legal battle is over.

Isabell Werth has received a fine but escaped a ban following a "minor" doping violation ©AFP/Getty Images


"That has been with me for two years in the evening when going to bed and in the morning when you get up," she told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

"Now I can focus on the sport again."

She also called for the harmonisation of national and international rules, as cimetidine - a drug used in the treatment of stomach ulcers and generally not considered to be a doping substance - is banned by the German Equestrian Federation but not the International Equestrian Federation (FEI).

This is Werth's second doping offence.

Her first was in June 2009 when she was suspended by the FEI after her horse, Whisper, tested positive for fluphenazine at a Whitsun tournament at Wiesbaden.

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