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More dopers cloud Games build-up
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-13 06:16
World 100 metres champion Torri Edwards was banned for two years and
Spanish cyclist Janet Puiggros Miranda failed a drug test as doping again
clouded the build-up to the Athens Olympics on Wednesday.
Three unnamed Russians also face exclusion from future competition for doping
offenses although they had not arrived in Athens to compete in the Games,
according to national officials.
Edwards, who inherited the world title when her fellow American Kelli White
was also suspended for two years after admitting taking a cocktail of drugs,
responded with an immediate appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Spanish mountain bike rider Puiggros Miranda was dropped from the national
Olympic team after testing positive for erythropoietin (EPO), the Spanish
Cycling Federation (RFEC) said on Wednesday.
At least six other athletes have failed tests in the past few days, including
Kenyan boxer David Munyasia who became the first competitor in Athens to return
a positive sample for a banned substance.
Publicly named
The Federation said that Puiggros Miranda was given the test at the Spanish
mountain bike championship in Candanchu on July 17.
"After notifying the affected party, who waived the right to a 'B' test, the
Federation informed the Spanish Olympic Committee that the rider would no longer
be participating at Athens," read a Federation statement.
Russian Olympic Committee vice-president Vladimir Loginov said three
sportsmen had returned positive A samples during pre-Olympic drug testing in
Russia.
They had not joined the team in Athens and they would be publicly named and
banned from future competition if the B samples confirmed the findings.
There was better news for Greek boxer Elias Pavlidis who was cleared to
compete in his home Games after an apparent positive test proved to be the
result of a mix-up in paperwork.
Edwards had been selected to run the 100 and 200 metres for the US team and
would probably have run in the 4x100 relay.
She will be replaced in the 100 by twice-Olympic champion Gail Devers and in
the 200 by LaShaunte'a Moore, the US collegiate champion.
A statement from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said Edwards, who tested
positive for the stimulant nikethamide in Martinique last April, had appealed to
the CAS.
CAS secretary-general Matthieu Reeb said the independent Lausanne-based body
could make a decision in time for Edwards to compete at the Athens Games if she
were cleared.
The athletics competition starts next Wednesday with the men's and women's
shot put finals in Olympia with the main programme beginning two days later.
"We can make the decision in one to three days. It's very quick," he said.
The 27-year-old sprinter had contended she was given glucose tablets by her
physical therapist who did not know they contained a banned substance.
A US arbitration panel concluded there could have been exceptional
circumstances but the world governing athletics body recommended, IAAF, a
two-year ban, which was accepted by USADA.
Russian officials, who have promised a crackdown on drugs, said they were
glad the suspects had been spotted early:
"It is good that the positive doping results came at home and not in Athens,"
Loginov told Ekho Moskvy radio.
He declined further comment on Russian media reports that the failed tests
were from two weightlifters and another athlete.
Athletes who fail a drugs test can expect to be banned for at least two
years.
The Athens Games is the first Olympics following the
introduction of a global anti-doping code.
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