IOC debates Greek star sprinters’ fate
Two of Greece’s greatest Olympic hopes – 200m Olympic champion Costas Kenteris and 100m silver medalist Katerina Thanou – were at the center of a tense drama last night after they failed to turn up for a mandatory doping control test yesterday. The IOC’s doping control committee and executive committee met beyond midnight last night and decided to call on the two to explain themselves today. Earlier, the Hellenic Olympic Committee said that an IOC doping control representative visited the Greek chef de mission, Yiannis Papadoyiannakis, at 6.15 p.m. and said he was looking for Kenteris and Thanou to test them. The IOC representative said had looked for the two in their rooms but had not found them. He then handed over two notifications for doping control tests. The Greek track team’s leader, I. Stamatopoulos, told Papadoyiannakis that the two had left the Olympic Village «to go pick up some personal belongings.» Stamatopoulos said he had notified the two athletes «who said they were coming back and asked for a postponement of a few hours so that they could return to the Olympic Village and undergo doping control tests,» the statement said.
