Bulgarian gold medallist stripped for doping

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Sydney: Two more Bulgarian weightlifting medallists were disqualified and ordered out of the Olympics on Friday for doping.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Izabela Dragneva, gold medal winner in the women's 48-kg category, and men's 62-kg bronze medallist Sevdalin Minchev had both tested positive for the banned diuretic furosemide.

On Wednesday, Bulgarian men's 56-kg silver medallist Ivan Ivanov was stripped of his medal and thrown out of the Games after also testing positive for diuretics.

"There are some athletes that did not want to learn the lessons. They are learning the hard way now," IOC director general Francois Carrard told a news conference.

Dragneva, 29, became the first gold medal winner in Sydney to be branded a drugs cheat. Silver medallist Tara Nott of the United States will now be awarded Dragneva's gold and Raema Lisa Rumbewas of Indonesia the silver. Indonesia's Sri Indriyani will get the bronze.

Minchev's bronze will be awarded to fourth-placed Gennady Oleshchuk of Belarus. Carrard said the ceremonies would take place at the athletes' village later on Friday.

Spotlight on weightlifting

Weightlifting was almost dropped as an Olympic sport after five doping cases at the 1988 Seoul Games, two of them involving Bulgarian gold medallists who had also taken furosemide.

Diuretics can be used by weightlifters to decrease weight before competition or to mask the presence of other banned substances. Furosemide is a relatively primitive diuretic.

"When athletes use a product that is well known it is a bit stupid," said IOC medical commission chairman Prince Alexandre de Merode.

Bulgaria withdrew their weightlifting team from Seoul and said earlier on Friday, before analysis of the athletes' B samples confirmed doping, that it was considering doing the same in Sydney.

"We will discuss the question," Beltcho Ivanov, the Bulgarian National Olympic Committee's secretary general, told Reuters. "Maybe we will decide to cancel the whole Bulgarian weightlifting team," he said.

Under International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) rules, a country that has three positive tests involving its athletes within 12 months is usually suspended from competition for one year under a "three strikes and out" rule.

The alternative is to pay a $ 50,000 fine, as Romania did earlier this week in Sydney to stay in the Games. IWF chief Tamas Ajan said the federation would hold a meeting later on Friday at which the cases would be discussed. Bulgarian officials would be invited to attend.

"Of course I am disappointed," Ajan said. "I trust the leadership of the sport and I am sure, together with the IOC, we can stop the use of this drug. It was a big mistake by the Bulgarians."

Carrard said it was too soon to discuss weightlifting's future at the Olympics following the cases in Sydney. He said the IWF had made "very, very strong efforts" to clean up the sport.

"These Games are really the Games where a joint, universal effort has to be taken from all sides" to fight drugs in sport, Carrard said.He said 760 tests had been conducted so far on athletes in competition in Sydney.

In addition, 227 athletes had undergone blood and urine tests for the performance-enhancing substance EPO and a further 323 had had standard urine tests for other banned drugs in pre-Games tests.

(c) Reuters Limited.