Greek sprinters' verdict expected this week

Greek sports authorities could this week issue their verdict on the country's top two sprinters for missing doping tests, including one on the eve of last year's Athens Olympics, their lawyer said yesterday.

Sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, facing career-ending bans for allegedly failing to appear for drugs tests on three occasions in two months, were initially expected to learn their fate by the end of February but a decision was delayed until at least mid-March.

"I would say a decision will come out by the end of the month, maybe even as early as this week," their lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos told Reuters. "Yes, there could be a decision in the coming days."

Kenteris, 31, who won the men's 200 metres gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Games and Thanou, 30, a 100 metres silver medalist at the same Games, face a two-year ban if found guilty of violating international doping rules.

The disgraced athletes, who withdrew from the Athens Olympics days before they were to race in front of their home crowd, have been temporarily suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) since last December.

The IAAF has said the sprinters failed to appear for doping tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens and ordered the Greek Athletics Federation (SEGAS) to hold a disciplinary inquiry.

The once hugely popular sprinters, who since their withdrawal from the Games have disappeared from the public eye, have the right to appeal against the decision and take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.