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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Duncan Mackay

Greek pair await IAAF decision

Kostas Kederis and Ekaterini Thanou will learn on Monday if they will be charged by the sport's governing body with deliberately missing drug tests.

Senior officials at the International Association of Athletics Federations will spend the weekend studying the Greek sprinters' explanations for not being available for a series of tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens.

"If the explanations are unacceptable, in accordance with IAAF rules, the athletes will be provisionally suspended pending a hearing before a disciplinary tribunal in Greece," the IAAF said.

Kederis and Thanou, who could be banned for up to two years, have been under scrutiny since they were asked to attend a doping test on the eve of the Athens Olympics, where Kederis was set to defend his 200m title and Thanou was aiming to improve on the 100m bronze she won in Sydney.

They missed the test after leaving the Olympic village. They were eventually contacted at their coach Christos Tzekos's flat but asked for extra time to return to the village - a request which was refused. Then they claimed to have been involved in a motorcycle accident as they were returning to the village.

They stayed in the KAT Hospital in Athens for four days and were suspended by their national Olympic federation. On November 18 the Greek chief prosecutor charged them with avoiding the test and faking the accident.

In all, eight charges have been brought against the athletes, Tzekos, eyewitnesses of the accident and seven hospital doctors. Tzekos has also been accused of "distributing prohibited substances, assisting in the use of prohibited substances and tampering with the doping control process".

All three deny the charges.

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