Leballo won the Spar Ladies 10km in Cape Town on April 2 in a 32min 55sec personal best and 13 days after that she came third in the Two Oceans half-marathon‚ also in a career best time.
She achieved two more bests on the track this season‚ in the 5‚000m in February and 10‚000m in March.
SAIDS said she had been banned for eight years.
“An analysis of the urine sample by the Doping Control Laboratory in Ghent‚ Belgium‚ returned an adverse analytical finding‚ revealing the presence of the Peptide Hormone‚ Erythropoietin (EPO).
“It was also alleged that the Pretoria athlete had tried to persuade SAIDS’s doping control officer to cancel the test. “The athlete was charged with an anti-doping rule violation and attempting to subvert the doping control process. Leballo conducted her own defence at the July 19 hearing.