ATHENS, April 7: A mistake at a Chinese factory was to blame for 11 members of the Greek national weightlifting team testing positive for banned substances, a Greek Weightlifting Federation official said on Monday.

The federation had announced on Friday that 11 of the 14 team members had tested provided positive with their ‘A’ samples and that the squad could face expulsion from the Beijing Olympics in August if their ‘B’ samples also proved positive.

On Monday, an official said on condition of anonymity the Chinese factory which had been supplying Greek athletes with nutritional supplements for months had sent a letter apologising for a mix-up in the ingredients.

“A letter was sent to us and it says that a mistake in the ingredients of the supplements had caused the problem,” the official said. “They are apologising for their mistake.”

The Chinese company said in the letter a number of banned toxic and cancer-causing substances had been accidentally added in the latest batch of supplements, the official said.

The lawyer for suspended head coach Christos Iacovou said he too had received the letter of apology.

“I have the letter from one of China’s biggest pharmaceutical companies with which they apologise for the tragic mistake of sending nutritional supplements which included some banned substances,” lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos told reporters.

“Iacovou never imagined giving his athletes banned substances and he never gave drugs to his athletes,” he added.

Under the current WADA code, the athletes face a two-year ban if they are first-time offenders.—Reuters