02 September 2004	Thursday	16 Rajab 1425

MOSCOW, Sept 1: Russia's Olympic shot put champion Irina Korzhanenko, stripped of her gold medal after a drugs test, said on Tuesday she was determined to keep her medal because she is innocent.

"For me to give the medal back would mean to betray myself, to admit my guilt, but I consider myself innocent," Korzhanenko was quoted as saying by Russian media. The 30-year-old, who won the first athletics gold of the Games at ancient Olympia, Greece on Aug 18, tested positive for the steroid stanozolol.

"I didn't steal this medal, I honestly earned it," she told a news conference at her home town of Rostov in southern Russia. Last week Korzhanenko said she was the victim of foul play as, she said, she had been when she picked up a previous two-year drugs ban in 1999. She now faces a life ban for a second offence.

"I'm 100, 200 percent sure that I'm innocent," she said then. "I'm the Olympic champion." The vice-president of the Russian Olympic Committee said on Tuesday that Korzhanenko's refusal to return the medal could mean sanctions against other Russian athletes.

"The sanctions could be severe and concern all our track and field athletes," Valery Kuzin told a news conference in Moscow. "Unless she returns the medal quickly, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) could decide to fine our federation, or worse, ban our athletes from competing in future international competitions.

Consequences could be huge." Hungarian hammer thrower Adrian Annus, who was stripped of his Olympic gold after failing to take a drugs test, is also refusing to give back his medal. -Reuters