Beijing 1,500 gold medallist tests positive

By Karolos Grohmann

STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) - Bahrain's Olympic 1,500 meters gold medallist Rashid Ramzi and two cyclists are among six athletes to test positive for the blood booster CERA at the Beijing Olympics, officials said Wednesday.

Italy's road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin and German Stefan Schumacher, who is already banned for doping, were confirmed to have tested positive for CERA along with Ramzi in re-tests of samples taken in Beijing last year.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Tuesday it had discovered seven more positive drugs results from re-testing samples taken from Beijing involving six athletes.

The Italian and Bahrain Olympic Committees confirmed the Rebellin and Ramzi positives while the German cycling federation said Schumacher had tested positive.

Sources close to the IOC investigation said Greece's 2004 Athens Games 20 km walk champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka and Croatian 800 meters runner Vanja Perisic had also tested positive for CERA in Beijing.

Local media in Zagreb quoted senior members of the Croatian National Olympic committee (HOO) as confirming Perisic had failed a dope test. Perisic was eliminated in the first round in Beijing.

Tsoumeleka, 27, who finished ninth in Beijing, was a surprise winner in Athens after finishing only seventh in the Paris world championships in the previous year.

The Bahrain Olympic Committee said it would meet Ramzi, the country's first Olympic champion, to inform him of the findings and hear his explanation.

"While the Bahrain Olympic Committee expresses its regret at receiving this news from the International Olympic Committee it confirms that Rashid Ramzi had been subject to many tests before and during the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 and all the results were negative," it said in a statement.

All the athletes tested positive for CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator), the new generation of the banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO), for which a test was developed only recently.

International cycling president Pat McQuaid said the naming of the Italian athlete by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) was wrong.

"CONI have broken the rules and it is disgraceful. It is an international matter and in such circumstances, it is up to the UCI to open disciplinary proceedings," McQuaid told Reuters.

MEDALS STRIPPED

The athletes, some of whom have yet to be publicly named, can now ask to have the B samples tested in their presence.

If the B samples are positive, then the athletes face two-year suspensions if they are first time offenders and possible life bans if they have been caught cheating before, like Schumacher.