Olympic 1,500-metre champion Rashid Ramzi faced an International Olympic Committee (IOC) disciplinary hearing yesterday to explain why he tested positive for the blood-boosting drug CERA after the Beijing Games.
The Morocco-born Bahraini was one of five athletes who had their cases heard by the IOC panel. They were caught this year in new tests using blood samples taken at the Games, but all deny doping.
The others are Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin, who won silver in the road race; German cyclist Stefan Schumacher; Croatian 800-metre runner Vanja Perisic and Greek race walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka.
The IOC can strip athletes of their results and medals, and ban them from the 2012 London Olympics. Disciplinary panel member Denis Oswald said rulings were expected when the IOC executive board meets in Berlin on August 13 and 14.
"Some of the cases have to go to the executive board and the intention is to announce all the results together," Oswald told the Associated Press after the near7-hour session. "There's quite a lot of arguments and we now have to study them."
Test not certified
Ramzi emerged from the IOC headquarters with his Los Angeles-based lawyer Maurice Suh - whose previous clients in doping cases include former Olympic 100-metre champion Justin Gatlin and cyclist Floyd Landis - around 90 minutes after the hearing started.
Neither commented on the case, though Suh later issued a statement outlining the runner's defence.
He said the new test for CERA was not certified when Ramzi's sample was tested; that the test produced a negative "B" result for another athlete; and documents to explain how the sample went from Beijing to the laboratory in Paris were missing.
"The utmost care should be taken to ensure that the process is fair to Mr Ramzi," Suh said.
The disciplinary panel was chaired by IOC vice president Thomas Bach of Germany, and included Switzerland's Oswald, Gerhard Heiberg of Norway and Frank Fredericks, the former Olympic sprinter from Namibia.
The IOC can disqualify athletes from the Games though suspensions must be imposed by an Olympic sport's inter-national governing body.
Under new IOC rules, any athlete caught doping and banned for at least six months cannot compete in the next Olympics.