The AP carries a story today of positive doping tests in the rerun of samples taken from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Apparently a rerun for CERA EPO netted a few more PED cheats, including the men's 1500M gold medal winner. These results ave been hinted at for weeks. (Let's Run link too)
An official familiar with the results tells The Associated Press
that backup tests came back positive for 1,500-meter champion Rashid
Ramzi and four others accused of doping at the Beijing Olympics.
The athletes tested positive for the blood-boosting drug CERA in retests of their "A" samples earlier this year, with the results announced in April.
The official told the AP on Wednesday that the "B" samples have been analyzed and confirmed the positive findings. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the results have not been announced.
The athletes face being stripped of results and medals.
The others are Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin, German cyclist Stefan Schumacher, Croatian runner Vanja Perisic and Greek walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka.
CERA EPO (the newer large molecule EPO) tends to be abused by endurance athletes.
Although this will not make as large a splash as Ben Johnson's Winny positive, an Olympic 1500 gold medalist positive for PED cheating is every bit as disgusting.
24-year-old French tennis player is dead of a heart attack after starting his five-week suspension for betting.
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldOfSport/idINIndia-40903720090708
Posted by: RIP | 07/08/2009 at 15:19