Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou left hospital on Tuesday, four days after a motorcycle crash that followed a missed drug test — again taking the focus from the competition arenas at the Athens Olympics.
Kenteris, the defending 200m champion, and Thanou, who won 100m silver in Sydney, are scheduled to appear before an International Olympic Committee (IOC) panel on Wednesday and could face suspension from the games.
”I am suffering a great injustice and I want to say I never used banned substances,” Kenteris said from the passenger seat of a car that was driving him out of an Athens hospital.
The Greek Olympic Committee suspended the athletes from their team on Saturday, pending a final decision by the IOC disciplinary committee. Their coach, Christos Tsekos, was also suspended.
A drug shadow also hangs over the United States team — with sprinter Torri Edwards discovering later on Tuesday if the Court of Arbitration for Sport will overturn a two-year suspension for taking a banned stimulant and let her run the 100m and 200m.
United Arab Emirates win gold
Eleven medal events were scheduled on the fourth day of Olympic competition.
The United Arab Emirates won their first medal when Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, a relative of the ruling family of Dubai, won the men’s double trap shooting. India’s Rajyavardham Singh Rathore took silver and Wang Zheng bronze.
Later highlights included the women’s artistic gymnastics team final, with defending champion Romania set to be tested by the world-champion Americans.
Swimming events
In the pool, there were finals in the women’s 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley, where Ukraine’s Yana Klochkova looked to win back-to-back individual-medley gold medals.
American talent Michael Phelps was aiming for two gold medals.
He sought his second individual gold in the 200m butterfly — the event in which he holds the world record.
The 19-year-old’s quest to better Mark Spitz’s 1972 haul of seven gold medals ended on Monday when he finished third in the 200m butterfly to Ian Thorpe. Phelps also won gold in the 400m individual medley and bronze in the men’s 4x100m relay.
On Sunday, Phelps will be a key member of the US team to contest the 4x200m freestyle relay, up against defending champions Australia, who will feature Thorpe.
In Tuesday morning’s heats, Thorpe and Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband advanced to the evening semifinal of the 100m freestyle.
Also qualifying were four-time Russian Olympian Alexander Popov, the 1992 gold and Sydney silver medallist, and Ryk Neethling, a member of South Africa’s surprise world-record 4x100m winning relay team.
Top American sprinters Jason Lezak and Ian Crocker surprisingly missed the cut — the first time the Americans didn’t get at least one swimmer through to the 100m freestyle final in a non-boycotted Olympics.
Other sports
Later on Tuesday, medals were also contested in the women’s saber and the men’s épée in fencing, the women’s 63kg and men’s 81kg judo divisions and the men’s 50m pistol shooting.
In tennis, top-seeded Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne reached the third round by beating Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela 6-2, 6-1.
She has dropped just 10 games so far after being out since May because of a viral infection.
Big-name men’s losers were former number one Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain who double-faulted twice while serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set to let the US’s Mardy Fish win 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Another major champion, number nine Marat Safin of Russia, lost to Feliciano Lopez of Spain 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Other second-round winners were American Taylor Dent, Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez, Russians Anastasia Myskina and Sveltana Kuznetsova, Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder, Italy’s Francesca Schiavone and Croatia’s Karolina Sprem.
Grand Slam champions Andy Roddick, Roger Federer and Venus Williams played later on Tuesday.
In Tuesday night’s basketball, the US men’s team looked to rebound from their shock 93-72 opening loss to Puerto Rico with a match against Greece. Other preliminary matches are New Zealand vs China, Australia vs Angola, Lithuania vs Puerto Rico, Serbia and Montenegro vs Italy and Spain vs Argentina.
Rowing has to catch up on repêchages that were cancelled on Monday because of strong winds. The repêchages in single sculls, pairs, lightweight double sculls for men and women and the men’s four, lightweight four and quadruple sculls were to help determine qualification for the semifinals. — Sapa-AP
Special Report: Olympics 2004