Athletics: Dobriskey determined to beat the middle distance doping cheats

LISA DOBRISKEY believes she might not be competing on a level playing field when she bids for the 1,500 metre title at the European Championships in Barcelona.

But the 26-year-old from Ashford in Kent insists her lingering suspicion some of her rivals may not be running clean just gives her added motivation.

The World Championship silver medallist recorded a season's best of three minutes 59.79seconds in Paris last Friday as Russian Anna Alminova - recently returned from a three-month doping suspension after testing positive for pseudoephedrine at the World Indoor Championships - took the victory. Dobriskey's event was also overshadowed by a doping scandal before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where the Briton came fourth, with three other Russian athletes - Yuliya Fomenko, Tatyana Tomashova and Yelena Soboleva - receiving bans. "I've been very, very lucky in the 1,500 that so many people have been caught. I think it's really highlighted the issue," said Dobriskey, who is third in the European rankings."I feel so determined. I want to just prove how good somebody can be being clean."