Rogge aims to limit the damage

Jacques Rogge was feeling relaxed when he returned to the Hilton Hotel last night after a reception of sports leaders-from his native Belgium. After having had to nag the Greeks for seven years to speed up their preparations for the Games, the International Olympic Committee president had good reason to feel relieved Athens was looking in good shape ahead of tonight's opening ceremony.

But before heading off to bed, he went to his office on the first floor to touch base with his Chief of Staff Christophe de Kepper.

As soon as Rogge walked into the room, he realised he had a major problem.

Over the next 24 hours, the Athens Games wo u ld experience a controversy which would finish with two of Greece's biggest sports stars in hospital injured after a motorcycle accident and embroiled in the biggest Olympic drugs scandal since Ben Johnson's positive test at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Greek Olympic 200 metres champion Kostas Kenteris and fellow sprinter Katerina Thanou, the Olympic 100m women's silver medallist, had failed to appear for drugs tests at the Olympic village yesterday afternoon, an offence regarded as serious as a positive test for a banned substance.

After a short discussion with IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch, Rogge decided to set up a disciplinary commission to discuss the case, due to be held early this afternoon but now delayed until Monday.

With both sprinters in hospital suffering from injuries caused by a motorbike crash last night, the IOC were forced to postpone the disciplinary hearing until both are recovered.

Earlier Schamasch went to the hospital to deliver a summons to the athletes to attend the hearing. But a hospital statement said Kenteris had suffered slight head injuries, a sprained vertebrae in his neck, a knee sprain and scratches to his right leg. His training partner suffered abdominal injuries and also sprained her right thigh.