Internet trade catches Greeks

A STEROID that suddenly became available for sale on the internet this year has claimed another alleged Greek cheat, with Fani Halkia, the reigning Olympic champion in the women's 400m hurdles, testing positive.

A total of 15 Greek athletes, including Halkia, have been caught with the same steroid, which has never been commercially available.

IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said that the high numbers of Greek athletes turning in positives to this substance was because it was available online.

Halkia said she was shocked to learn she had tested positive for the highly toxic oral steroid methyltrienolone and did not know how the banned substance was found in her sample.

"I am shocked," she said. "I have undergone more testing than anyone else."

But Schamasch said the easy availability was probably behind the positive test.

"Some drugs are quite difficult to get hold of but this one suddenly became much easier to buy and I guess that's why we're seeing more positive tests," Schamasch said.

"It seems the use of this drug by the Greeks is related to its appearance on the internet."

He could not predict whether more tests would follow in the remaining week of competition but warned that "we have a very simple and effective test for this steroid, so we will catch any athletes who have used it".

Halkia was tested in Japan a few days before the Beijing Olympics where Greece's track and field team was training.

Halkia was summoned by the head of Greece's Olympic delegation and told of the results of the first sample she gave to World Anti-Doping Agency doctors.

The International Olympic Committee has also barred sprinter Katerina Thanou from the Games for her role in a drug-testing scandal at the Athens Games.

Halkia was a relative unknown before she won the gold medal in the women's 400m hurdles at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Her semi-final time of 52.77sec was an Olympic record.

The Greeks who have tested positive include their entire weightlifting team, Olympic swimmer Ioannis Drymonakos who was sent home a few days before the Games began, and sprinter Dimitris Regas, who has been protesting his innocence since testing positive last month.

"The use of anabolic steroids by an athlete who knows that he will be tested would not only be immoral but suicidal," Regas said. The sprinter claimed he was a victim of "some people who want to attack (Greek) athletics".

Steroid expert Patrick Arnold said methyltrienolone was one of the "most powerful" anabolic steroids created.

Arnold said that several athletes used methyltrienolone in the 1990s and were able to successfully pass doping controls due to the very small quantities of the steroid required for performance enhancing effects.