Vienna - Former hurdler Elmar Lichtenegger was banned for life Wednesday by the Austrian athletics federation for a second positive doping test.

The ban will apply to all international and national sport, the federation ruled.

Lichtenegger, 34, retired from athletics in December last year a few days after testing positive for the banned substance Norandrosteron, a metabolite of the anabolic steroid Nandrolone.

He had been banned for 15 months in 2003/2004 for a similar doping offence. In both cases, Lichtenegger blamed tainted food supplements for the positive result.

Lichtenegger was a silver medallist in the 110-metre hurdles at the 2002 European indoor championships.
-Topnews.in