Drug row Greeks quit Games

Adrian Warner|Evening Standard|In Athens

13 April 2012

Today was billed as the

As female athletes made history by competing in the ancient Olympic stadium for the first time in the shot put competition for thousands of years, the Greek nation was watching Olympic champion Kostas Kenteris and his training partner Katerina Thanou falling on their swords.

After a drugs scandal which has dominated the first week of these Olympics, the pair announced they were pulling out of the Games following a disciplinary hearing of the International Olympic Committee.

The plan was to have the eyes of the world focused on athletes walking past the altar of Zeus, where the Olympic torch is lit, and through a third-century BC crypt on the way to an historic sporting competition.

Instead TV stations were broadcasting-live pictures of Kenteris and Thanou entering the Hilton Hotel in Athens to answer questions why they had failed to turn up for two drugs tests in the run-up to the Games.

The offence of dodging tests is as serious as testing positive for a banned drug.

After an hour's hearing, Kenteris spoke to the media in chaotic scenes outside the hotel when hundreds of TV cameramen, photographers and reporters were involved in confrontations with Greek riot police.

The biggest drugs scandal since Ben Johnson was thrown out of the 1988 Olympics has been an extraordinary soap opera for the last seven days with the two sprinters locked away from the media in hospital following a mystery motorcycle crash.

The state prosecutor has even announced a probe into their drugs scandal and the crash for which no witnesses have come forward.

Today the story finished with a bang with Olympic 200metres champion Kenteris sacking his coach Christos Tzekos and issuing a dramatic statement outside the hotel.

It is clear the pressure from the Greek authorities and politicians, who are furious that the affair is dominating their first Games since 1896, was too much for Kenteris.

He said: "For the past 108 years we wanted the Games to return to Greece. It is with the sense of responsibility and national interest that I am retiring from the Games."

But he added: "It is Greek officials and the sports federation who are to blame for this case. I have passed drugs tests on more than 30 occasions in the last four years without any problems. I informed the committee that I was not notified."

Tzekos also handed in his accreditation for the Games and blamed the media for exaggerating the issue.

He said; "You have elevated a procedural matter into a very serious issue. It is not good for Greece, Greeks, the sport and the athletes. I don't see I have done anything wrong but I take on my responsibilities." While the IOC were expected to ban the athletes officially later today from the Games for missing two tests around the event, their future in athletics is not likely to be decided for several weeks.

The IAAF, the governing body of athletics, will investigate the case in detail. Their rules require three tests to be missed in an 18-month period for an offence to be committed.

But Kenteris is in danger of being banned for two years since IAAF president Lamine Diack has already revealed that the sprinter also missed a drug test in Tel Aviv on 28 July.

IAAF medical chief Arne Ljungqvist said: "The IAAF can suspend the athletes while they conduct an investigation."

In Greece the pair have crashed within a week from sporting icons to persona non grata. The Greek island ferry and street named after Kenteris is likely to find a new identity in the time it takes to unscrew a plaque.

Who wants to live in the equivalent of "Dwain Chambers Lane" or take a boat trip in "The Pride of Michelle Smith"?

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Drug row Greeks quit Games

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