Hungarian hammer thrower Adrian Annus has become the third track and field
gold medallist to be kicked out of the Olympics.
Although Annus produced a negative test immediately after his victory last
Sunday but he still attracted the suspicions of the doping controllers.
Those worries were intensified on Wednesday when his team-mate Robert Fazekas
failed to produce a sample following his gold medal discus efforts, apparently
after appearing for the test with a bag of urine strapped to his leg.
Testers subsequently called upon Annus in Athens and then again in Hungary,
finally notifying him on August 27 of an anti-doping test for which he
subsequently failed to appear.
That reason alone was justification for disqualification, however, the IOC
have now also now re-tested the samples Annus provided in two separate tests
during the course of the Games and discovered they belonged to two different
athletes.
This would not normally have come to the IOC's attention as these samples are
referred to by numbers rather than by the names of the athletes who have
provided them.
At a meeting of the IOC executive board this afternoon, Annus, who announced
his retirement over the weekend after complaining of victimisation, was formally
thrown out and a further investigation launched into alleged tampering with a
sample.
He follows Fazekas and Russian shot-putter Irina Korzhanenko into the hall of
infamy and brings the total of exclusions on drug-related issues to 24.
Koji Murofushi of Japan is elevated to the gold medal position with Ivan
Tikhon of Bulgaria promoted to silver and Turk Esref Apak moving up from fourth
place to claim the bronze.
Earlier on Sunday Colombian cyclist Maria Lusa Calle Williams became the latest
Olympic medallist to be thrown out for failing a drugs test.
The 35-year-old finished third in the women's points race on Wednesday but has
subsequently tested positive for the prohibited stimulant heptaminol.
Calle Williams has denied taking any banned substance but under the IOC's
'strict liability' rule she has now been stripped of her medal.
Her disqualification is good news for Erin Mirabella, who moves up from fourth
to become the United States' only track cycling medallist.