Drugs testers snare Beijing medal-winners

The Olympic 1,500 metres champion and a silver medal-winning cyclist are among six athletes from last summer's Beijing Games to test positive for a blood-boosting drug, officials confirmed yesterday.
Rashid Ramzi, who became Bahrain's first Olympic champion on the track, and Davide Rebellin, a silver medal-winner in road racing for Italy, may be stripped of their medals and banned for two years if a supplementary B sample is also positive.
They were caught under a new rule allowing blood and urine samples to be stored for eight years after a Games for retesting as detection procedures improve. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had conducted 948 retests of samples, mainly in endurance events where blood doping is of benefit. There were seven positive results involving six athletes.
The athletes were found to have taken Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator (CERA), the new generation of erythropoietin (EPO) that stimulates the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells.
The Dominican Olympic Committee identified Yudelquis Contreras, the female weightlifter, as one of the athletes. Sources said Athanasia Tsoumeleka, the Greek race walker who has already admitted testing positive, and Vanja Perisic, the Croatian 800metres runner, were among the six. The other cyclist was officially named as Stefan Schumacher, a German who faces a lifetime ban from the sport for a repeat offence.
All risk missing the London Olympics in 2012 if they are banned by their federations for more than six months under a new rule introduced by the IOC. The cases bring the total number of drug cheats from Beijing to 15. Nine athletes tested positive during the Games and pre-Games testing caught a further 40 athletes.
The B sample of Ramzi, born in Morocco, will be tested in France on June 8 when he faces an IOC hearing. If he is stripped of his Olympic title, Asbel Kipruto Kiprop, of Kenya, would be upgraded to gold, Nicholas Willis, of New Zealand, to silver, and Mehdi Baala, of France, to bronze.
If Rebellin is disqualified, Fabian Cancellera, of Switzerland, would be awarded his silver medal and Alexander Kolobnev, of Russia, would get the bronze. The IOC has not officially named any of the athletes or their sports.
Today's deadline for London 2012 athletes to sign a controversial image rights agreement has been extended for more negotiation between agents, sports and British Olympic officials. UK Sport had threatened to withdraw Lottery funding to up to 80 athletes unhappy with a contract that would limit their earning potential by tying them to a new, collective sponsorship programme called Team 2012. The row was first reported in The Times.
Source:The times