Greeks face new tragedy

Greece was in despair today after its Olympic champion and national icon Kostas Kenteris faced the humiliation of being thrown out of the Athens Games because of a doping scandal just hours before tonight's opening ceremony.

Amid scenes of high drama here it emerged early this morning that Kenteris, the Olympic 200 metres champion, and his training partner Katerina Thanou, the 100m women's silver medallist at the 2000 Sydney Games, spent the night in hospital after a motorcycle crash hours after being accused of missing tests.

The pair will miss an International Olympic Committee disciplinary hearing later today after a hospital statement issued early this morning revealed they were still being treated for minor injuries.

"The athletes will not be leaving hospital, they are there, it is known they are there, and if the IOC committee wants to go down there and listen to what they have to say that is up to them," said Greek Olympic team spokesman George Gakis.

With the row between the Greek organisers and Olympic officials set to escalate, the IOC face a race against time to deal with the controversy before the Games open tonight.

An IOC spokeswoman said, that despite the pair's injuries, they still intended to go ahead with the hearing at a central Athens hotel in their absence. If found guilty of evading a test, the pair could both be thrown out of the Olympics and receive two-year bans. Kenteris, a national sporting icon who is nicknamed "Greece Lightning", had been expected to be given the honour of lighting the Olympic flame at the ceremony in front of a worldwide TV audience of 4.5 billion.