August 02, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 29, 1429

ATHENS, Aug 1: Greek sprinter Ekaterina Thanou on Friday said she faced “intense pressure” to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics, four years after starring in a major doping controversy at the Athens Games.

“I am experiencing a situation of war,” Thanou told a news conference.

“There is intense pressure on a daily basis...documents that effectively bombard me have arrived, with the sole objective of securing my departure from the Games or rendering my participation unsuccessful,” she said, flanked by her lawyers and reading a prepared text.

The 33-year-old athlete has rarely spoken in public since her inglorious exit from the Athens Games over a missed doping test, a fate that also befell Greece’s Sydney Games 200m gold medallist Costas Kenteris.

But her legal team called a press conference Friday to present her views.

Thanou and Kenteris were provisionally banned in 2004 by athletics governing body IAAF, sat out competition for over two years, and eventually admitted missing a total of three doping tests prior to the Athens Olympics.

Thanou returned to competition with modest results in 2007 after her suspension ended and was included in Greece’s Beijing squad last month after narrowly meeting the 100m qualifying standard.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) want to reexamine her case, having noted in 2004 that “any participation of Kenteris and Thanou... at any further edition of the Olympic Games shall be subject to a new procedure in front of the IOC”. Both athletes still face charges of perjury and falsifying evidence in Greece over a mysterious motorcycle accident which they claim landed them in hospital after they missed the Athens Games test.

Thanou’s case was expected to be discussed this weekend and she had planned to travel to Beijing on Monday, but the IOC on Thursday said the issue would be put to the IOC disciplinary committee on Aug 7, one of her lawyers said.

He also accused the IOC of discriminating against her.

“There is discrimination against Thanou,” her lawyer Nikos Kollias said.

“We have asked the IOC to clear up the issue for the past year.

“At the same time, athletes who have admitted taking performance drugs and were punished are taking part in the Beijing Games without problem,” he added.

Several American athletes who have failed doping tests and served suspensions are on the US team, including hurdler Damu Cherry and former 100m world champion Torri Edwards.

Hungarian discus thrower Robert Fazekas, stripped of the gold medal for failing to provide a sample in Athens four years ago, has also qualified for the Beijing Games.

Thanou, a 100m silver medallist in Sydney, has threatened to take legal action should the IOC attempt to prevent her competing in Beijing.

“She has qualified, she has a right to compete and she even has Olympic accreditation which means she can stay at the Olympic Village,” Kollias said.—AFP