ATHENS, June 6: After testifying to a magistrate on Monday, Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou said she was confident she would be acquitted of avoiding a doping test on the eve of the Athens Olympics and faking a motorbike accident on the same day.

Thanou, fellow sprinter Costas Kenteris and their coach at the time, Christos Tzekos, face charges of deliberately missing three doping tests and faking the accident that sent them to hospital for four days.

“I am now going back to work which is training,” a smiling Thanou told reporters after her appearance.

Kenteris, who won the 200 metres gold medal at the 2000 Olympics, and Thanou, a 100 metres silver medallist at the same Games, were initially cleared of wrongdoing by a Greek athletics commission in March in a shock decision that infuriated the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The sprinters, who caused the biggest athletics scandal since 100 metres gold medallist Ben Johnson tested positive for steroids at the 1988 Seoul Games, had voluntarily withdrew from the Games amid a whirlwind of publicity, to avoid heaping further embarrassment on the host nation.

“Everything is good and I am very satisfied with the way things are going,” said a smiling Thanou, a Greek Air Force who was dressed in a civilian business suit.

“I have submitted my evidence and I am confident.”

They are still banned from competing pending an IAAF appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). If found guilty they face a two-year ban.

Kenteris is also due to appear before the magistrate in the coming weeks.—Reuters