Hunter excuse is ‘cheap’, says IOC official

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Sydney: Olympic anti-doping chief Jacques Rogge on Wednesday accused US shotputter C J Hunter of providing a ''cheap excuse'' for four positive drug tests for a steroid.

Rogge, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical commission member and one of the favourites to become IOC president next year,said the levels of nandrolone found in his body were so high that they could not be explained away by food supplements.

Appearing at a news conference with Hunter on Tuesday, nutritionist Victor Conte said the positive tests were caused by a nutritional supplement, which had been tested and found to contain the banned steroid.

But the IOC have said the test taken at a meeting in Oslo had shown a concentration of nandrolone 1,000 times above the permitted limit of two nanograms per millilitre of urine. The three other tests showed similar levels, they said.

Rogge, who as a surgeon has extensive knowledge of drugs, said, ''It's a cheap excuse. The level 2,000 is very strong. There is no evidence that food supplements give such high levels. If there is nandrolone in the urine, youwill hang, full stop.''

Hunter pulled out of the US Olympic team for the Sydney Olympics citing a leg injury but news of the tests broke during the Games.

Athletics has witnessed an array of nandrolone cases in the last two years involving high-profile athletes such as former sprinter Linford Christie and other British athletes, German distance runner Dieter Baumann and Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey.

Christie has been banned for two years for nandrolone, while Ottey was exonerated this year after a positive test. Conte said he understood both athletes had both taken the same supplement.

But Rogge said, ''the British were about 10-20 (times the limit). Ottey was about 20 max. These were double digits - not four digits. It is an extremely high level.''

Hunter, whose case is being considered by the US national athletics body, faces a battle to avoid a two-year suspension. Under the rules of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) it is irrelevant how a substance got into an athlete's system. the presence of a banned drug in the urine is enough to sanction a competitor.



(c) Reuters Limited.