|
Greek State to further tighten doping rules, Judo boss wants weightlifting moratorium
By HellenicAthletes Staff
| Tuesday, July 7 2009 9:32:06 PM |
| |
|
|
The Greek government intends to take further measures in the fight against doping in sport, Deputy Culture Minister for sports Yiannis Ioannidis announced on Tuesday. He was speaking during a meeting that he convened at the ministry to discuss the latest incident of doping on Greece 's weightlifting team involving its star lifter, Nikos Kourtidis.
The meeting was attended by Hellenic Olympic Committee President, Spyros Capralos, the head of Greece 's athletics federation SEGAS, Vassilis Sevastis, the head of the Weightlifting Federation, Pyrros Dimas, the Athens Olympic Athletic Centre (OAKA) board chairman, Alexandra Manou, the head of the OAKA doping lab Costas Georgakopoulos and other sports officials.
The new proposals being considered by Ioannidis include doping test results that must be announced within 10 days or the samples would be sent for testing abroad, tougher penalties for athletes using banned substances as well as their coaches, and a prevention program targeting students. It was also announced the doping lab would also be removed from the supervision of OAKA, and will henceforth be part of the National Sports Research Centre.
A furious Dimas has been demanding answers from Greece’s testing authorities, publicly questioning why results would be announced on the evening of Kourtidis’ gold medal victories at the just completed Mediterranean Games, when those samples, which came back positive, were taken weeks earlier on June 1st. Greece won 64 medals for 5th place overall at the games but will lose two gold and one silver if the “B” samples from Kourtidis and Konstantina Lapou also come back positive.
Greece will host the 2013 edition of the games at Volos.
Also today, the chairman of Greece’s Judo Federation, Vangelis Soufleris, proposed a provisional suspension of the Greek weightlifting team from all international competition.
“Greek sport does not deserve the scorn it receives each and every time a doping case is announced,” he said. “Only then would the right conditions exist for a new generation of lifters to be spared the stigma of doping now engulfing the sport. Only then would there exist a new beginning for a sport that requires the protection and not the outcries from the Greek society.
” Everything begins with prevention as it is the only way to achieve the results that we want. Clean medals, clean Greek sports.”
*****
© 2009 HellenicAthletes.com.
All Rights Reserved.
This article may NOT be reproduced without the expressed, written permission of the editor, in accordance with United States and international copyright laws. Selective quotations are permissible as long as this website is acknowledged through hyperlink to: www.hellenicathletes.com
|
