EDMONTON (CP) -- Robin Lyons isn't a runner, but after filing a formal appeal of her positive dope test Wednesday, the champion hammer thrower is in the most important race of her career.
 
 With the Olympics scheduled to start in nine days, she hopes to get her expulsion from the Canadian team overturned in time to join her fellow competitors in Sydney, Australia.
 
 "We've filed our notice of protest with the Canadian Centre for Ethics In Sport," said Lyons' lawyer, Tom Cooke.
 
 "We're cautiously optimistic that we will have their decision in the next two or three days if all goes well."
 
 The centre's Doping Control Review Board will now examine the appeal, said Victor Lachance, centre spokesman.
 
 "Depending on its content, they may require additional assistance from other experts, but they will go through the process of evaluating what has been sent and they will make a ruling."
 
 Results may be back within two or three days, Lachance said.
 
 "It depends how many issues are raised, the nature of them, the time required to evaluate them and assess them."
 
 Lyons told CBC Newsworld on Wednesday she remains optimistic.
 
 "I'm keeping my hopes high, I'm continuing training, I'm hoping the right people will get involved in the situation."
 
 Cooke said public support would be welcome. "Letters, faxes, sent to the minister would be very helpful."
 
 Hours after Lyons filed her appeal, a second athlete was booted off the Canadian Olympic team following a positive drug test, CBC Newsworld reported Wednesday.
 
 Athletic officials would not immediately confirm the report.
 
 Newsworld said Eric Lamaze of Schomberg, Ont., a member of the Canadian equestrian team, tested positive for cocaine and has been dropped from the team.
 
 Results from Lamaze's tests were expected Thursday.
 
 Rulings from the centre have been reversed, said Lachance, but not often.
 
 Few become as widely known as Lyons', he said. Often they are resolved after a protest and never become public.
 
 Lyons, 23, of Edmonton, tested positive for the anabolic steroid norandrosterone, a metabolite of nandrolone, at the Canadian Olympic trials in August.
 
 Her two urine samples showed 1.2 and nine nanograms of norandrosterone per millilitre of urine. The legal level is five nanograms.
 
 Norandrosterone occurs naturally in the body but most humans would show a level of 0.5., said Lachance. The highest natural level the centre has seen in a natural test is 0.8, he said.
 
 Lyons' appeal says the disparity between the two samples, taken only 25 minutes apart, throws doubt on their accuracy. It says the first test, which yielded the higher result, was originally declared invalid because of its dilution.
 
 The appeal also cites research that suggests that elite athletes produce much higher levels of norandrosterone that non-athletes -- two to four times as much, according to some research.
 
 Norandrosterone also fluctuates according to the female menstrual cycle. Lyons also says she has normal menstrual cycles, a process usually disrupted when an athlete takes steroids.
 
 Finally, she points out that she has never had a previous positive test and that several legal dietary supplements she has taken may have created the positive reading.
 
 But Lachance said the threshold levels of norandrosterone were deliberately set high enough to ensure any normal body processes wouldn't get caught in the net.
 
 If Lyons' protest fails, she has one other avenue of appeal. She may also apply for reinstatement.
 
 But both outcomes would mean Canada would send one less athlete to Sydney, said John Thresher of Athletics Canada.
 
 Lyons is the Canadian hammer-throw champion, one of only two women to meet the Canadian Olympic Association's standards to compete in the throwing events at the Olympics, Thresher said.
 
 "We had two throwers, now we have one. We're supportive of Robin and we hope the protest is successful."
 
 The other 41 members of Canada's track and field team want to see her back as well, he said.
 
 "The initial reaction is shared disappointment with Robin. They understand her hopes and dreams and they sympathize with her."