NSAN
2009
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2009
SPORTS 7B
OLYMPICS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi wins to run the gold in the men's 1500-meter at the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympics last August. The Bahrain Olympic Committee said Wednesday that Ramzi tested for positive at the Beijing Games.
Associated Press
Runner among six athletes who test positive in dope case
BY STEPHEN WILSON
LONDON — The gold medalist in one of track and field's glamour races and a silver winner in cycling are among six athletes from the Beijing Games nabbed for blood doping in the latest Olympic drug scandal.
A person with knowledge of the results told The Associated Press that Greek race walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka and Croatian 800-meter runner Vanja Perisic also tested positive.
If their backup "B" samples also come back positive, the athletes face being disqualified, stripped of medals and banned from the next Olympics.
National sports bodies in Bahrain and Italy confirmed Wednesday that 1,500-meter champion Rashid Ramzi and road race medalist Davide Rebellin turned up positive for the new blood-boosting drug CERA in retests of their samples. Dominican women's weightlifter Yudelquis Contreras and prominent German cyclist Stephan Schumacher were among the others.
The International Olympic Committee announced Tuesday that a total of seven positive tests involving six athletes came back positive for CERA, which increases endurance by stimulating production of oxygen-rich red blood cells. The IOC has not named the athletes or the sports involved.
The six new cases bring to 15 the total number of athletes caught doping in Beijing, and underscore both the persistence of cheating across sports and nations and the IOC's aggressive policy in catching drug users even outside the period of the Olympics.
The IOC reanalyzed a total of 948 samples from Beijing after new lab tests for CERA and insulin became available following the Olympics. The testing began in January and focused mainly on endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and track and field.
Ramzi won Bahrain's first gold medal in track and field and is the first champion from the Beijing Games to be busted for use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The Moroccan-born runner, who won the 800-1,500 double at the 2005 world championships, gave Bahrain its first ever Olympic track and field gold medal with victory in Beijing in 3 minutes. 32.94 seconds.
Ramzi's "B" sample will be tested in France on June 8 and he will face an IOC hearing the same day, the Bahrain Olympic Committee said.
Ramzi became a citizen of Bahrain after moving to the Gulf nation to take up a job in that country's armed forces in 2002, but retains a Moroccan passport and trains with a old coach Khalid Boulami.
"The Bahrain Olympic Committee apologizes for receiving such news from the International Olympic Committee since it ensured Ramzi went through all the necessary doping tests before the games and they were all negative," the committee said in a statement.
If he is stripped of the Beijing victory, Asbel Kiprato Kiprop of Kenya stands to be upgraded from silver to
Track and field has been battered by Olympic drug scandals, from 100-meter winner Ben Johnson in 1988 to spinner Marion Jones in 2000, both of whom were stripped of their golds.
gold. Nicolas Willis of New Zealand would go from bronze to silver, and fourth-place finisher Mehdi Baala of France could move up to the bronze medal.
However, the person with knowledge of the results identified the two others as Tsoumeleka and Perisic. The person confirmed their identities to the AP on condition anonymity because the names haven't been released by the IOC.
Toummeleka finished ninth in the 20-kilometer walk, and Perisic was eliminated in the first-round heats of the 800.
The International Association of Athletics Federations confirmed it had received notification of three cases in track and field, but declined to give any names because they were considered confidential.
Toumeleka announced in January that she had tested positive in Beijing rechecks. She was charged by a Greek prosecutor earlier this month with using banned drugs.
"The IAAF would like to commend the IOC for their efforts in the storage and re-analysis of samples and for their coordination with the IAAF in this process," the federation said in a statement. "This step shows that athletes who
cheat can never be comfortable that they will avoid detection and sends a strong message of deterrence."
In Rome, the Italian Olympic Committee suspended Rebellin and anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri called him to a hearing on Monday.
"I don't see why I should take a path that would ruin me or my image," Rebellin told Italy's state TV on Wednesday. "I don't know if I'll still be able to race, but I will always ride because cycling is my life."
The 37-year-old Rebellin finished second behind Spain's Samuel Sanchez in the Olympic road race. If he loses his medal, Switzerland's Fabian Cancellera could move to silver and Russia's Alexander Kolobnev to bronze.
Rebellin's pro cycling team, Diqiuigovanni-Androni, temporarily suspended the rider, pending analysis of the "B" sample.
The German cycling federation announced that Schumacher, who finished 13th in the Beijing time trial and dropped out before the finish of the road race, was among the positive cases.
The 27-year-old Schumacher already has been banned for two years by the International Cycling Union after being caught by French authorities in retesting of Tour de France samples for CERA.
Schumacher won two individual time trial stages at the Tour de France last July and wore the yellow jersey for two days as race leader.
Super Bowl MVP Holmes arraigned on pot charge
BY DAN NEPHIN Associated Press
COURTS
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers receiver and Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes was arraigned Wednesday on a misdemeanor marijuana charge stemming from a traffic stop.
Holmes' attorney, Robert DelGreco Jr., appeared at the brief hearing where charges were formally presented. Holmes did not appear, nor was he required to.
DelGreco said he planned to challenge the constitutionality of the stop, but did not elaborate.
"I will be filling a suppression motion. That will be a public record and we'll go from there," he said.
Pittsburgh police said they
found three marijuana-filled cigars in Holmes' car when he was pulled over Oct. 23. Holmes was stopped because his car was similar to one they were looking for in a drug sting.
DelGreco has characterized the charge "as low as a grade a misdemeanor you can get". The penalty is up to 30 days probation and a $500 fee, he said.
Holmes was cooperative and alerted officers to the drugs, police said.
Coach Mike Tomlin deactivated Holmes for a game following the traffic stop.
He was not arrested and received a court summons, which is common with misdemeanor charges in Pennsylvania.
Holmes said he "learned a lot" from missing a game following the traffic stop. Before the Super Bowl, Holmes told the media that he had dealt drugs for a year in his hometown of Belle Glade, Fla.
Holmes, a first-round draft pick out of Ohio State in 2006, has had two other run-ins with the law since the Steelers drafted him. In June 2006, he was charged with domestic violence in Columbus, Ohio.
In May 2006, Holmes was arrested for disorderly conduct by police in Miami, who later dropped the charges.
No trial date has been set on the recent charge, but a pretrial conference was scheduled for May 22 in Allegheny County Court.
INTERNATIONAL
Champion sprinter Bolt in car crash
BY HOWARD CAMPBELL
Associated Press
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Olympic champion spinterer Usain Bolt was in a car crash Wednesday in Jamaica, but police and his manager said he was not seriously injured.
Bolt was apparently speeding on a rain-slicked highway when he lost control of the BMW M3 and it went off the road, police Sgt. David Sheriff told The Associated Press. Sheriff was the first officer to arrive at the scene in St. Catherine parish and found the car heavily damaged.
An official at Spanish Town Hospital confirmed Bolt appeared
to have only scratches. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of privacy concerns, said Bolt was "very calm" and that doctors were examining him to make sure there were no other injuries. The official said Bolt would be required to provide a statement to police.
Bolt and an unidentified female passenger were taken to the hospital, though neither was seriously hurt, Sheriff said.
The track star's manager, Norman Peart, said Bolt sustained nothing more than scratches from thorn bushes when he stepped out of the car on the side of the road.
"We are very relieved he's OK,"
Peart told the AP.
Bolt's team will conduct tests over the next 48 hours to decide whether he sticks to his competition schedule, Peart said. Bolt has a meet Saturday in Jamaica and is set to run a 150-meter street race in Manchester, England on May 17.
The 22-year-old sprinter won the 100 and 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics and was part of the Jamaica team which won the 4x100 relay. All three gold medals were earned in world record times.
Bolt was given the BMW by his sponsor Puma as a reward for his outstanding performance in the Olympics.
HEALTH
HEALTH Texas postpones events because of swine flu
The move suspends the baseball and softball seasons and eliminates the regional track championships that were to start Friday, said Charles Breithaupt, executive director of the University Interscholastic League.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas officials on Wednesday postponed all public high school athletic and academic competitions until May 11 because of the swine flu outbreak.
He said league officials acted on the recommendation of public health officials.
"The health and safety of our student activity participants is of the utmost importance." Breithaupt said. "Taking every possible precaution to prevent the further spreading of this disease is an important contribution to the welfare of our great state, and altering the schedule of our events is a way to keep our participants safe."
School officials say 53,000 students are out of school due to concern over the virus, and
dozens of schools were closed to be sanitized.
The state golf and tennis championships are scheduled to begin May 11. The state track meet, one of the largest high school track and field competitions in the country, has been extended from its normal two days to three and is scheduled for May 14-16.
All UIL academic competitions, including a state meet that was to begin May 7,were also postponed.
Associated Press