Canberra boxer Bianca Elmir claims she has been targeted by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and tested excessively heading into the Commonwealth Games trials.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Elmir has learnt her lesson after serving a 12-month ban for a positive doping test and is aiming to claim the Australian title at the national championships in Fremantle, starting Monday.
She won the 51-kilogram division in Hobart in Feburary, 2012, before she had it stripped after testing positive to banned diuretics furosemide and amiloride.
That cost her the chance to represent Australia at the world championships and potentially the 2012 London Olympic Games.
She said she has ''100 per cent'' been targeted by ASADA since her return, but has accepted this will happen.
"It's not a nice thing to think about when I'm trying to deal with my preparation,'' Elmir said.
"I'm trying not to have it as a distraction and it's infuriating more than anything that I can't just focus on that.
"All I can do is focus on my goals and not let any external things either distract me or pull me out of focus.
"This has been a two-year project I've been training for ever since coming back from Ireland and I can't let anything distract me, including ASADA.''
Elmir appealed against her original suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on the grounds she used the banned substances to reduce the effects of swollen ankles caused by a flight from Ireland to Australia days before the event.
This time, she has travelled from Canberra to Perth early to give her body time to cope with the travel.
The two diuretics are banned because they can act as masking agents for performance-enhancing substances.
Elmir said she was tested by ASADA four times within a 10-day period leading up to the recent ACT state titles.
"Unfortunately [ASADA] can be an element of distraction, but that shouldn't be their role,'' Elmir said.
"Obviously ASADA does a lot of testing as a deterrent, but if anything it shouldn't be a hindrance to my preparation of training.
"It affects my weight cutting because it's a weight division sport and they require you to drink so much water (to produce a sample).''
Elmir said making the 51kg weight limit ''isn't fun'', but is confident of getting down to the required mark in time to challenge for the title.
Her biggest problem in the ring has been finding opponents willing to take her on.
Elmir's camp went to the lengths of flying out a Russian world champion to Canberra for a sparring session earlier this year.
Elmir then travelled to Russia for valuable training against world-class rivals.
