Bulgarians leave too many syringes behind

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Sydney: Olympic Village staff have stopped cleaning rooms of Bulgarian athletes because they leave too many used syringes lying around.

Two cleaners have been pricked by needles left by athletes from various countries, village mayor Graham Richardson said on Friday. He said blood tests showed the cleaners had not been infected. The syringes are used to inject vitamins, usually B12, he said.

"I have absolutely no evidence about the use of illegal substances... Most of them say they are vitamin injections and I have no reason to believe they are not," he said.

"My concern has solely been for the health of the staff," Richardson said, adding the needles were not tested for drugs.

Richardson refused to name any of the other 19 countries whose athletes had left needles, saying he had singled out Bulgaria because it was the worst offender.

"The team that has left the most needles around is Bulgaria. We have not serviced their rooms for several days," Richardson said.

"Needles have been found on tops of tables, some have been found on the floor. Far too many have been thrown in the ordinary garbage when proper needle disposal is available," he added.

Extra disposal containers for syringes were installed last week in the village, which houses about 16,800 people.

"No one has done this as many times as the Bulgarians. And so I nominated them because I am particularly irritated by the number of times," he said, declining to give a number.

"I don't think it is fair to name the other teams because they haven't been up in the Bulgarian class," Richardson said.

Bulgaria have already been under a cloud at the Sydney Games because of several doping cases.

Last week, three Bulgarian weightlifters - men's 56-kg silver medallist Ivan Ivanov, women's 48-kg gold medallist Izabela Dragneva and men's 62-kg bronze medallist Sevdalin Minchev - were expelled after testing positive for a diuretic.

Richardson said he knew of four athletes who had been sent home by their countries because of the problem.



(c) Reuters Limited.