Team GB weightlifter Denis Catana will miss London 2012 Games after failing drugs test

One of Britain's medal hopes for the London 2012 Olympics has been banned for two years after testing positive for steroids.

Weightlifter Denis Catana, who is originally from Moldova, tested positive for Metenolone just before the Commonwealth Games has been banned for two years.

He had been provisionally suspended from all competition after testing positive in August, during the build-up to the Games in Delhi where he was to compete for England.

The long weight begins: Denis Catana begins a two-year drugs ban that will end his London 2012 hopes

UK Anti-Doping today announced that he has been given a two-year ban. Even without the British Olympic Association's lifetime ban on drugs cheats, the suspension rules Catana out of the London 2012 Games.

Catana had been the best English weightlifter in the snatch and clean and jerk events in 2010.

UK Anti-Doping director of operations Nicole Sapstead said: 'Mr Catana was tested as part of UK Anti-Doping's pre-Commonwealth Games testing programme. This case shows the importance of our major event programme, and our commitment to stopping athletes who dope competing on the world stage.

'Here in the UK, our anti-doping programme places great emphasis on targeting athletes out-of-competition.

'We run an intelligence-led anti-doping programme aimed at catching doping athletes before they are able to compete and we will continue to work tirelessly to protect the rights of clean athletes in the run up to London 2012 and beyond.'

Andy Hunt, chief executive of the British Olympic Association, said drug cheats could have no complaints about being banned from the Games.

Hunt said: 'If an athlete seeks to gain an advantage through the use of banned substances, they should expect to get caught - and they must know that the consequences will be quite severe.

'Athletes who earn the honour of representing Team GB at the Olympic Games will do so through hard work, talent and an unwavering commitment to clean competition.

'The only medals we are interested in winning are clean medals.'