Sprinters brace for news
Greek sports authorities could this week issue their verdict on the country’s top two sprinters for missing doping tests, including on the eve of last year’s Athens Olympics, their lawyer said yesterday. Sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, facing career-ending bans for allegedly failing to appear for drugs tests on three occasions in two months, were initially expected to learn their fate by the end of February but a decision was delayed until at least mid-March. «I would say a decision will come out by the end of the month, maybe as early as this week,» their lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos told Reuters. «Yes, there could be a decision in the coming days.» Kenteris, 31, who won the men’s 200 meters gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Games, and Thanou, 30, a 100-meter silver medalist at the same Games, face a two-year ban if found guilty of violating international doping rules. The disgraced athletes, who withdrew from the Athens Olympics days before they were to race in front of their home crowd, have been temporarily suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) since last December. The IAAF has said the sprinters failed to appear for doping tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago, and Athens and ordered the Greek Athletics Federation (SEGAS) to hold a disciplinary inquiry. Disciplinary committee president Costas Panagopoulos could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. The once hugely popular sprinters, who since their withdrawal from the Games have disappeared from the public eye, have the right to appeal against the decision and take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They also face a criminal hearing in Greece over the missed drugs tests and have been charged with faking a motorcycle accident on the day of the Athens test, which led to them spending four days in hospital. Their coach also faces charges of importing illegal substances, including anabolic steroids for his nutritional supplements company. SEGAS officials said they did not know when a decision would be issued. «We have not yet received any information on when a decision will come out. We will be informed by the disciplinary committee when they are ready,» a SEGAS official said. The official said he was also unaware of a specific IAAF deadline for a decision. Following the final hearing in late January, the athletes had sounded confident they would be acquitted. «I am confident and optimistic,» Thanou had said at the time. «We presented new evidence to the committee that they were not aware of.»
