Topic: News: Greek weightlifting nightmare continues, Nikos Kourtidis tests positive

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Greek weightlifting nightmare continues, Nikos Kourtidis tests positive

[Tom Sherwood]

what competition was Nikos Kourtidis just in?

[Shaun Le Conte]

The link was missing, it's here: http://hellenicathletes.com/news.php?news_id=542

The positive for Kourtidis came just prior to the Mediterranean Games at the beginning of this month

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

The link is there....its the title. 

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Link

Two Greek weightlifters fail doping tests, says federation

ATHENS: Two Greek lifters participating at the Pescara Mediterranean Games have tested positive for unspecified banned substances, the Greek weightlifting federation said on Wednesday.

Both athletes failed a June 1 test while the other, identified as a female athlete, had also failed a May 14 test, the federation said.

The federation did not name the athletes pending tests on their second fluids sample, but Greek press reports identified them as Nikos Kourtidis and Constantina Lapou, who have respectively won two gold and a silver medal in Pescara.

One of Greece's most flourishing sports for over a decade, Greek weightlifting has been devastated by doping incidents in the past year.

A mass doping outbreak months before the Beijing 2008 Olympics saw eleven lifters excluded from the Games after they tested positive for the banned steroid methyltrienolone.

National coach Christos Iakovou, the architect of Greece's long-term success in the sport, resigned in disgrace and a drastically reduced Greek squad failed to win a single medal in the competition.

Iakovou, the athletes and another 13 people have been charged over the case in a trial that is ongoing.

The Greek weightlifting federation in April banned for two years two other weightlifters who were found positive in an anti-doping control last year.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Link

Weightlifting - Greek medal winners fail doping tests
By Graham Wood

ATHENS (Reuters) - Two Greek weightlifters have failed doping tests at the Mediterranean Games in Pescara, the Greek Weightlifting Federation (EOAB) said on Wednesday.

Nikos Kourtidis, who won two gold medals in the men's 94-kg category, and Konstantina Lapou, who took silver in the women's 58-kg, tested positive for an as yet unspecified substance.

The `A' samples for Kourtidis, 23, and 19-year-old Lapou were taken before the competition began on June 1.

An EOAB spokesperson confirmed the identities of the athletes after federation president Pyrros Dimas had earlier issued a statement announcing the positive tests.

"I have been informed that two athletes in our Mediterranean Games team have returned positive first sample tests in doping controls that were completed on June 1, that is to say 30 days before the current competition," said the statement.

"All the controlling mechanisms therefore, just before the end of the Mediterranean Games, informed us of the positive samples after our athletes had competed."

The EOAB will await the results of the `B' samples of both athletes before any potential disciplinary action is taken.

The news is as another blow to Greek weightlifting.

In March 2008, the sport was rocked when 11 members of the national weightlifting team were banned from competition after testing positive for banned substances.

Before Wednesday's announcement, three more cases had already been confirmed in 2009 with the athletes receiving two-year bans.