Kenyan boxer first to fall foul of drug testers

A Kenyan boxer has become the first in what the IOC is warning could be a long line of athletes to be thrown out of the Athens Olympics for doping.

A Kenyan boxer has become the first in what the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is warning could be a long line of athletes to be thrown out of the Athens Olympics for doping.

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Bantamweight David Munyasi tested positive for cathine, a stimulant closely related to ephedrine, hours after arriving in the Greek capital last week.

IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said on Tuesday the drug found in his system was similar to Bangi - a commonly used recreational drug in East Africa.

Munyasi, 24, who had been due to compete in the men's 54-kilogram bantamweight division, is the first athlete to be caught under the new extended out of competition testing system which the IOC says gives athletes nowhere to hide. Under the old method he would have escaped detection.

"In previous Games, in out of competition testing we only tested for steroids. These Games we are testing for every banned substance on the IOC list," said Arnie Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC medical commission.

Ljungqvist said he feared there could be a record number of positive tests here at the Athens Games - not because there were more cheats but because the tests were now much more effective.

A handful of other competitors will not be stepping foot in an Olympic venue after falling victim to the testers.

Cyclist Oscar Camezind was barred from the Swiss Olympic team after the banned endurance-boosting drug EPO (erythropoietin) was found in his system last month and, in an embarrassment for the host nation, two baseball players from Greece's Olympic team have been dropped after testing positive for drugs.

Andrew James Brack and Derek Nicholson, both US citizens of Greek descent, tested positive for the steroid stanozolol and the diuretic hydrochloro-thiazide respectively.

With Friday's opening ceremony fast approaching, IOC President Jacques Rogge is bracing himself for more positive dope tests in Athens than in Sydney four years.

"In 2002 we had seven positive tests as opposed to five in the previous 18 Games. We might see the same effect in Athens, and I won't be sorry," Rogge said.

"Each positive case is a victory. It eliminates a cheat and sends a message to those who want to cheat."

Rogge stressed that the Olympic movement was not scared of bringing big names athletes to book.

The 1988 Seoul Olympics were scarred when 100 metres winner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroids - a test Rogge hails as a benchmark in the fight against drug cheats.

"It was a very important day because it was the beginning of out-of-competition testing and a new resolve for the fight against doping," Rogge, a Belgian surgeon, told the BBC.

However there are signs that athletics - traditionally the showpiece of the Games - could be rocked by a succession of positive tests.

The golden girl of the Sydney Olympics, sprinter Marion Jones, is competing in Athens under the cloud of a wide-reaching investigation carried out by the the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

Even though Jones has never tested positive, she is accused of buying and using steroids and other doping products.

Confusion surrounds her US teammate, sprinter Torri Edwards, who tested positive for a banned stimulant and is waiting to find out if she will be able to compete in the Games.

Irish distance runner Cathal Lombard, a bit player in the world of athletics, said after it was revealed he had tested positive for EPO this week that he was just trying to keep up with his fellow competitors.

"I didn't set out to try to win medals or to make money. I just wanted to be as competitive as I could and have an equal chance with everyone else," said the 28-year-old who trained as a lawyer.

"I looked at some of the times being consistently run and I asked myself if this was possible naturally: the only logical conclusion I could reach was that, in a lot of cases, the answer was definitely `no'."

Athens looks set to prove more than ever that the desire to win medals sometimes pushes Olympians to cheat.