ATHENS, April 10: Greek police on Thursday asked Interpol to help shed light on a doping case involving positive tests from 11 of the country’s top weightlifters that could see the team banned from this year’s Beijing Olympics.

Greek weightlifting federation officials and its suspended head coach have blamed the positive tests on a Chinese company, who they claim accidentally spiked a batch of supplements with banned ingredients.

They said the company had also sent an email apologising for the ingredients mix-up.

The head of the police electronic crime unit, Manolis Sfakianakis, told an Athens prosecutor the Chinese company’s alleged apology was sent from a computer located in China.

“But Sfakianakis has also asked Interpol to help in the investigation and locate specifically from which computer in China the email originated,” a police official told Reuters.

“Interpol has said it will need 5-10 days to determine the exact location within China of the computer used by the sender of the email,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Chinese company was quoted earlier on Thursday as saying it had sent an apology letter to Greek team officials.

“It is true we sent an email, but we need to wait a few days before we can respond with a public statement,” the Beijing News newspaper quoted an unnamed company employee as saying.

The case has stunned Greeks ahead of the Aug 8-24 Olympics, with many drawing parallels to a drugs scandal involving the country’s top two sprinters and medal hopes, Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, on the eve of the 2004 Athens Games.

The weightlifting squad could face expulsion from the Beijing Olympics if their follow-up B-samples test positive.—Reuters