July 20, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 16, 1429

ATHENS, July 19: A boxer in Greece’s Olympic team has tested positive for banned substances less than a month before the start of the Beijing Games, the boxing federation said on Friday.

“The athlete tested positive for a banned drug and no other details will be announced until the second sample is tested in about seven days,” federation spokesman Yannis Rigas said.Rigas said he could not say what weight division the boxer, one of three on Greece’s preliminary Olympic squad list, was in.

“If I said the weight he fought in, it would be like naming him,” Rigas said.

The federation confirmed the positive test in a statement.

“The Hellenic Anti-Doping Agency informed the boxing federation of a positive test for prohibited substances,” it said. “The federation will announce the name of the athlete and start all legal procedures after the completion of testing of the second sample.”

Late on Friday, the Greek swimming federation said one of its athletes had also tested positive, for testosterone.

The federation said in a statement that both samples of swimmer Maria Demertzi had tested positive. She was not in the preliminary Olympic squad.

In April, 11 members of the national weightlifting team tested positive and since then the swimmer Yiannis Drymonakos and rower Yiannis Tsamis, who had both been likely medal contenders in Beijing, have also tested positive. They will miss the Olympics.The Hellenic Olympic Committee said it would test all athletes on the Olympic team at least twice before travelling to Beijing.

It is eager to avoid another embarrassment like four years ago when two of its sprinters, Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, missed a drugs test on the eve of the Athens Games and were forced to withdraw, casting a shadow over the start of the Olympics.—Reuters