Raducan appeals for restoration of gold

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Sydney: Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan appealed on Tuesday against the loss of her all-round Olympic gold medal after she tested positive for a banned drug contained in a remedy she took to cure a cold.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said three arbitrators would meet in Sydney on Wednesday to hear the case. "The CAS will decide after that hearing whether or not a final decision will be issued on the same day," the court, set up by the International Olympic Committee to rule on sporting disputes during competition, said in a statement.

Raducan, who will be 17 on Saturday, lost the gold medal she won in last Thursday's artistic all-round final when the stimulant pseudo-ephedrine showed up in her drugs test.

The sanction unleashed a wave of sympathy for the tiny athlete, a star of the Sydney Games, after the IOC acknowledged that she innocently took an over-the-counter cold remedy containing the drug that was prescribed by her team doctor.

"I feel very sorry for her," China's Liu Xuan, who moved up to bronze in the event, said of the svelte Romanian. "I'm very happy for myself - a very surprised sort of happy - but I think that the all-round champion really is very good."

The FIG, gymnastics' governing body, said it would take no further action against Raducan. "It was felt that the removal of the medal was punishment enough for an athlete who was innocent in this situation," it said in a statement.

The doctor involved, Oana Ioachim, was expelled from the Sydney Olympics by the IOC and banned from the 2002 Winter and 2004 Summer Games. The FIG said the physician would also be excluded from all international events for four years.

Raducan became the fifth athlete to test positive for drugs in competition at the Sydney Games. The others were three Bulgarian weightlifters, all medallists, and a Latvian rower.



(c) Reuters Limited.