Defiant Kenteris looks forward to charges
Greek doping suspect Costas Kenteris said yesterday he was looking forward to facing possible charges over avoiding a pre-Olympics drug test, seeing it as a chance to prove his innocence. «If a decision is taken to have charges filed against me, I will accept it gladly,» the Greek 200-meter sprinter told Greek private television station Alter. «Prosecution means that the case will be cleared… I want to go to the end and then we’ll see who’s right and who isn’t,» said the 2000 Sydney Olympics champion. Coming on the heels of a preliminary investigation by Athens prosecutors Spyros Mouzakitis and Athena Theodoropoulou, senior prosecutor Dimitris Papangelopoulos is widely expected in the coming days to file charges against Kenteris and training partner Katerina Thanou for avoiding drug tests on the eve of the Athens Olympics. The two athletes and their coach Christos Tzekos could be accused of the misdemeanor charge of fleeing a drug test in the Olympics athletes’ village on the evening of August 12. They also risk charges of giving false statements about a motorbike accident they said they were involved in and which kept the drug testers at bay for a while. In one of the biggest doping scandals of the Athens Olympics, which shocked the Greek hosts, the two athletes quit the Games upon their release from an Athens hospital on August 18. In the only full-fledged interview he has given since the incident, Kenteris yesterday maintained his innocence and said he believed he was set up by the Greek Olympic Committee (HOC) and the International Olympic Committee. (AFP)
