IOC to hold Austrian doping hearings next week

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will hold two days of hearings next week on an Austrian doping affair that shook last year's Winter Olympics.

The IOC's disciplinary commission will meet on April 4-5 to hear the case of the Austrian biathlon and cross-country skiers, who were suspected of doping and their premises were raided by police and testers during the Turin Games.

"The hearings will be held on April 4 and 5 in Lausanne," an IOC official told Reuters.

The IOC had said in February the hearings had been delayed pending the report by Italian authorities but would be held by mid-April.

A banned skiing coach's presence at the athletes' headquarters during the Turin Games triggered a night-time raid by the Italian police and doping testers.

The coach, Walter Mayer, fled the scene and crashed his car into a police roadblock across the border in Austria before being briefly admitted to a psychiatric clinic.

Ten athletes were tested on the night of the raids for possible doping, but were all found to be clean.