SEX slur veteran athlete Kathy Jager has branded her sport's governing body a dictatorship after they upheld her worldwide athletics ban for taking a banned substance.

The 56-year-old American was hoping that the World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA) would overturn a two-year ban for taking a banned drug contained in post- menopausal treatment.

But a WAVA review of her case found no evidence of "exceptional circumstances" and her ban, which runs out in August, still stands.

Mrs Jager was stripped of two gold medals she won at the World Veterans' Championship in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, two years ago following the positive test.

Her appearance in the North-East was overshadowed by a sex test she was forced to take after rivals accused her of being a man. She passed the test but refused to sue her accusers.

She has always protested her innocence on the drugs issue, claiming the methyl testosterone found in the random blood test was medicine to help her cope with the menopause.

She now calls on athletics governing bodies to overhaul their anti-drugs policy for veteran athletes, introducing different criteria for the over 40s.

Speaking last night from Phoenix, Arizona, she said: "I feel like the whole process was taken out of my control by a dictatorship.

"However, I do believe that something good can come from this. Athletes who compete in masters events (meetings for the over-40s) should get together and demand a change in the whole culture of drug-testing veterans.

"It's ridiculous that athletes over 40-years-old should be treated the same as 20-year-olds. In everyday life, our bodies require different medicines so we shouldn't be subject to the same rules.

"In the US, veteran runners aren't even tested for drugs."

Despite failing to clear her name, Mrs Jager proudly shows the medals won at Gateshead in a glass cabinet in her lounge. She has been allowed to keep the medals, but her name has been stricken from the record books.

Since her ban, she has kept her fitness and plans to return to US meetings after August.

She said: "My return from disqualification comes a month after the next World Veteran Championships in Australia.

"But I might make a return in the next championships in 2003. I am going to be back."