Doping and sports action vie for headlines

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Sydney: Romanian gymnastics star Andreea Raducan goes to court on Wednesday in an attempt to overturn the International Olympic Committee's decision to strip her of a gold medal after a positive drugs test.

The scourge of drugs threatens to take some of the gloss off what promises to be a top sporting day at the Sydney Games with eighteen gold medals at stake.

The United States and Cuba, political foes going back to the Cold War era, will battle it out for the gold medal in the Olympic baseball tournament. There is also some showcase athletics action after a day off on Tuesday.

US anti-drugs chief Barry McCaffrey has entered the sports doping fray by ordering the American track team to come clean on any cases covered up for the Sydney Games, Australia's 'Daily Telegraph' newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of a letter that McCaffrey had sent to US athletics and IOC officials. It gave no other details.

The latest damaging controversy surrounds US world shot put champion C J Hunter, husband of sprint champion Marion Jones, whose quest for five gold medals has made her one the most prominent athletes at the Sydney Games.

Hunter in tears

Hunter, a massive figure, broke down in tears at a news conference on Tuesday and pledged to clear his name after IOC officials said he had tested positive four times this year for the anabolic steroid nandrolone.

"I don't know what happened, I don't know how it happened...I can promise that I will defend myself vigorously. We have put together a great team and I am quite positive that when all is said and done I will be exonerated," Hunter said.

The Olympics have been repeatedly scarred by drugs since 1988 when Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for steroids after winning the 100 metres in Seoul.Ever since, the IOC has been anxious to show the world that it is getting on top of the drugs issue -- and it knows Raducan's appeal to sport's highest court will have an impact on its campaign one way or the other.

Raducan, who will be 17 on Saturday, was stripped of her gymnastics all-round gold medal on Tuesday after testing positive for pseudo-ephedrine contained in Nurofen pills she took as a cold cure.

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

Raducan is being allowed to keep the team gold and silver collected earlier in the gymnastics competition.

Court hearing

The Romanian team appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to reverse the ruling at a hearing in Sydney on Wednesday. If the court rules in her favour the gold will be returned to Raducan.

"The CAS will decide after that hearing whether or not a final decision will be issued on the same day," the court said in a statement.

The Romanian team doctor, held to be responsible for giving Raducan the cold cure, has been expelled and suspended from the next Games in 2004.

Jacques Rogge, a member of the IOC medical commission, expressed some sympathy for Raducan but said they had to act out of fairness to her rivals.

US baseball manager Tommy Lasorda insists the gold medal game against Cuba on Wednesday will not be a grudge match, despite angry encounters in their last meeting.

"We have nothing against the Cuban team, believe me," Lasorda said after his team beat South Korea 3-2 on Tuesday night with a ninth-inning homer by Doug Mientkiewicz to reach the final.

"We just want to have a really good game and let the best team win."Cuba, who defeated Japan 3-0 in their semifinal, have already beat the Americans 6-1 in the round-robin phase on Saturday night in a game marked by many angry moments and fierce, hard play.

Aggressive style

Several US players, including Mientkiewicz, complained about the aggressive style of the Cuban players.

Double Olympic champions Cuba have dominated international baseball competition for decades, but the veteran team showed a rare vulnerability in losing a round-robin game to the Netherlands -- their only defeat in 26 Olympic baseball games.

"We know we're the underdogs, a bunch of youngsters that haven't experienced too much," Lasorada said. "They've been beaten before and we hope we can beat them again.

Wilson Kipketer's bid for a first Olympic title is expected to keep the Sydney Games athletics programme on the boil -- headed by the 800 metres.Logically, Kipketer, the three-times world champion, is the favourite. Emotion also dictates that the Dane should win after he was forced to miss the 1996 Games.

Kenya-born Kipketer had transferred his allegiance to Denmark after moving there in 1990 and approached the Atlanta Games as the world champion, boasting the fastest 800 metres run in 11 years.

But he was caught up in a diplomatic row, with Kenya refusing to allow him to release him to compete for Denmark and the Danes refusing to bend their seven-year qualification rule.

With a world record personal best more than 1.5 seconds quicker than anyone else in the field, he looks hard to beat.

The men's and women's 400 metres hurdles finals are also run on Wednesday and both feature cosmopolitan fields, with athletes from 14 different nations filling the 16 slots.

Saudi Arabia's Hadi Souan Somayli qualified fastest for the men's final with a personal best 48.14 seconds but faces stiff competition from South African Herbert Llewellyn, Italian Fabrizio Mori and American duo James Carter and Angelo Taylor.

Defending champion Deon Hemmings of Jamaica qualified fastest in the women's race.

Medal of desire

The third hurdles event of the night is the women's 100 metres, where triple world champion Gail Devers seeks the medal she most desires.

The double 100 metres flat champion, by nature a hurdler, tripped on the last hurdle when leading at the 1992 Olympics and four years later she finished fourth in Atlanta.

The other athletics medal event on Wednesday is the women's discus, where the top three from Atlanta -- German defending champion Ilke Wyludda, silver medallist Natalya Sadova of Russia and bronze winner Ellina Zvereva -- are expected to jockey for the title.

Another big gold medal contest on Wednesday will be between American Venus Williams, the US champion, and Russia's Elena Dementieva in the women's tennis singles.

At the end of the 11th day of the Games on Tuesday, the United States led the medals table with 25 golds, China were second with 22 and Russia third with 17. Australia and France had 12 each.



(c) Reuters Limited.