Daily steroid injection: The doping suspensions come dripping in; top women's 1500M super-athlete Russian Yelena Soboleva goes down

1.  The Italian Olympic commission suspends cyclist Ricco.  (The Age)

2.  Romania drops 2 1500M athletes.  (Reuthers)

Two female Romanian 1,500-metres runners have been dropped from the country's Olympic team under suspicion of doping, the head of the national Olympic and Sport Committee (COSR) said on Thursday.

"Elena Antoci and Cristina Vasiloiu were dropped from the Romanian Olympic delegation as both are under suspicion of doping," COSR head Octavian Morariu told reporters.

3.  Five top Russian track athletes banned from Beijing.  (Yahoo Sport)

The athletes banned are Yelena Soboleva (pictured), Tatyana Tomashova, Yulia Fomenko, Darya Pishchalnikova and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva.

A sixth athlete, former Olympian Svetlana Cherkasova, has also been banned.

Soboleva had produced the fastest 800m and 1500m this season; Tomashova is a former world champion at 1500m and Fomenko won a silver in the 1500m at the last World Indoors.

Pishchalnikova is the European discus champion while Khanafeyeva is a former world record holder in the hammer....

Russian Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev explained to All Sport that the reason why IAAF suspended the athletes was because of possible tampering with the samples.

"Tampering with the samples".  Two days in a row...