Coach blames officials for missed drugs tests

The coach of two Greek sprinters facing two-year bans for missed doping tests accused Olympic officials yesterday of incorrect notification procedures that forced his athletes to withdraw from the Games.

Coach Christos Tzekos and sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou are accused of avoiding a series of drugs tests including one on the eve of the Olympics last August.

Tzekos told an athletics disciplinary committee the pair had never avoided being tested, contradicting a top doping official who said they could not be found in the athletes' village to undergo testing.

"There are two ways you can see a subject but it is up to the committee to decide," he told reporters. "We presented the reality as we lived it."

Asked whether doping officials had followed all procedures, Tzekos said: "Not all, not all."

Kenteris, 31, the defending men's 200 metres champion, and Thanou, 29, who won the women's 100 metres silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Games face a two-year career-ending bans if found guilty.

The head of the athletes' village doping centre said on Saturday that testers were looking for the Greek sprinters for two hours but could not find them.