Romania drop Popescu from Olympics pending dope test

Liliana Popescu of Romania competes in the women's 1500m event at the Qatar Super Grand Prix in Doha May 9, 2008.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Liliana Popescu, the fastest women's 1,500 meters runner this year, has been dropped from Romania's Olympic team under suspicion of doping, the local athletics federation (FRA) said on Thursday.

"At the moment, Liliana Popescu does not belong to the athletics team for Beijing on suspicion of doping," FRA head Sorin Matei told Reuters by telephone.

Matei, who gave no details about the suspected substance, said the decision would remain in force until the FRA received the final result of the first and second samples.

Local media have reported over the past two weeks that Popescu failed a doping test at an athletics meeting in Algiers in May.

"We will not include any athlete in the Romanian delegation who might test positive for banned substances, in order not to risk breaking the strict anti-doping legislation," said Matei.

(Reporting by Radu Timofte; Editing by Alan Baldwin)