Jacobs tests positive for THG steroid

Top American middle-distance runner Regina Jacobs has become the latest athlete to register a test positive for tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).

The 40-year-old was yesterday identified as one of four athletes caught by a reexamination of the test results from samples given at June's US national Championships.

She is the third person to be publicly identified in the growing scandal involving the previously undetectable designer steroid, joining British sprinter Dwain Chambers and the American shot putter Kevin Toth.

Jacobs, who has won 24 US titles, beat Britain's Kelly Holmes to the 1500 metres gold medal at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham last March. Her continued improvement at the age of 40 had made her the subject of a whispering campaign among other athletes on the European grand prix circuit.

Last winter she became the first woman to break the fourminute barrier indoors for 1,500 metres, a performance which confounded experts as she has been competing since 1977.

If a positive test is confirmed, Jacobs would be banned from competing in next year's Olympic Games in Athens.