Norway bronze medalist suspended
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Four riders, including Norwegian bronze medalist Tony Andre Hansen, were suspended from the Olympic Games on Thursday after their horses returned positive dope tests for the same banned substance.
The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) said the positive tests were damaging for the sport, after the horses tested positive for capsaicin, a chilli derivative which is banned for its hyposensitizing and pain-relieving properties.
"Obviously this is certainly a serious blow to the sport and we are very well aware of the possible implications it can have," said Sven Holmberg, the chairman of the FEI jumping committee.
Hansen, on his horse Camiro, was a member of the Norwegian team that won bronze in the team jumping competition on Monday.
The federation has not decided whether the team should keep its medals. Switzerland finished fourth in the team competition behind the United States (gold) and Canada (silver).
"That's not yet determined," FEI Secretary-General Alexander McLin told reporters, explaining that a further analysis of the horse's B-sample would be carried out in the next two days after which hearings would be held and a decision made on the medals.
Three other riders have also been suspended after positive tests for their horses -- Denis Lynch of Ireland, Bernardo Alves of Brazil and Germany's Christian Ahlmann. They are all showjumpers and did not take part in the individual show jumping final on Thursday night.
Capsaicin, an active ingredient in chilli peppers is sometimes applied as a paste or lotion to a horse's forelegs to "hypersensitive" them, so that they try harder to lift their smarting shins to avoid rapping the fences and incur penalties.
"People have been caught, and they shouldn't have been doing it and they know it ... It's sad for the sport," said Australian show jumper Matt Williams.
Ireland's Lynch protested his innocence, saying he had only rubbed a topical pain reliever on his horse's lower back.
"I use it on all my horses, I've been unlucky ... definitely I've been robbed of not being able to jump," he said.
The substance capsaicin was not previously on the radar of anti-doping laboratories.
"Capsaicin has always been regarded as an illegal substance as a result of its effect on performance but it's only recently that the analytical laboratories have developed the technique to be able to discover it," said Paul Farrington, an associate member of the FEI's veterinary commission.
The FEI stopped short of saying whether the results hinted at more systematic usage of capsaicin than previously thought in showjumping, but said the identical positive results "certainly adds to the seriousness of the cases", Holmberg told reporters.
The German Equestrian Federation said Ahlmann's horse Coester had tested positive for capsaicin on August 17.
At the 2004 Athens Olympics, four horses tested positive for banned substances, including two gold medalists.
(Additional reporting by Sophie Taylor; Writing by Robert Woodward; Editing by Alison Williams)
