As expected, the International Association of Athletic Federations has suspended Honolulu Marathon women's champion Lyubov Denisova for two years for testing positive for prostanozol (an anabolic steroid) and elevated testosterone.

The ban will prevent Denisova, who set a Honolulu Marathon women's course record of 2 hours, 27 minutes, 19 seconds in December, from competing until April 26, 2009.

Denisova, 35, is a two-time winner of the Los Angeles Marathon.

Honolulu Marathon Association president Jim Barahal said the suspension didn't go far enough.

"My sense is that it is not adequate," Barahal said. "If we want to get performance-enhancing drugs out of the sport, we have to ban athletes who test positive for much longer.

"(Prostanozol) is not cold medicine," Barahal said. "It's a performance-enhancing drug and this gets straight to the heart of cheating."

In an interview with the Advertiser last week, Denisova claimed she purchased the drugs online and, because of her difficulty with the English language, was not aware that what she was taking included banned substances.

Of the four athletes sanctioned by the IAAF so far this year, three are Russian women. The other is a male runner from Morocco.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.