Three Bulgarian runners have been banned for doping offences, it was reported.

Sprinter Tezdzhan Naimova has been banned for two years for manipulating a doping sample while two middle-distance runners Vanya Netova and Raya Stoynova received two-year bans for doping.

The 21-year-old Naimova won the 100 and 200 meters at the world junior championships in Beijing in 2006.

Netova and Stoynova were banned after testing positive for the anabolic steroid metanolon during competitions in Turkey and Greece.

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2009)