Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno has become the first competitor at the Beijing Olympics to fail a drugs test, the IOC said yesterday.

Moreno, better known as Maribel Moreno, had been entered for the women's road race and individual time trial and tested positive for the endurance-boosting EPO drug.

IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies said Moreno was tested on July 31 and left the city on the same evening. The IOC officially took control of drugs testing on July 27.

Davies said Moreno, 27, had been stripped of her Games accreditation and the matter had been referred to the International Cycling Union (UCI). The UCI confirmed the doping offence.

The IOC has said it expected between 30 and 40 positive drugs tests during the Aug. 8-24 Games and has boosted the number of Games-related drugs tests to more than 4,500.

The Spanish Olympic Committee (SOC) said it was unaware of the positive test until being informed yesterday.

"We got this news for breakfast," Jose Maria Bellon, SOC Director of Communications, told Reuters.

"She arrived in the first group of Spanish athletes on July 31. It seems the same day she arrived, she had a drugs test and after that had a panic attack and asked the (cycling) federation to be allowed to return to Madrid."

This is not the first time athletes are tested upon their entry into the village. Greek sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou missed a drugs test at the Athens 2004 Games only a few hours after checking in at the Olympic village and were subsequently banned.

The discovery of a positive test for EPO is also good news for the IOC, given the questions surrounding the testers' ability to trace the substance. The IOC had insisted it would have a test in Beijing that would trace a new version of the EPO substance.

Moreno could now face a two-year ban and under a new IOC rule could also miss the 2012 London Olympics.