Greek sprinters charged

Thursday's charges against the athletes, their coach and hospital doctors who treated them after the alleged crash end a three-month investigation into the incident that cast a shadow over the August Games hours before the opening ceremony.

Kenteris and Thanou are unlikely to be jailed if found guilty, a judicial source said. Their former coach Christos Tzekos is charged with obstructing the test and owning, storing and trading banned substances.

The pair, Greece's best hopes for an athletics medal, withdrew from the Olympics after failing to appear for a drugs test and saying they were involved in a mystery motorcycle accident which kept them in hospital for four days.

"They have now been officially charged and if found guilty they could face fines or short jail sentences which can either be paid off or suspended," a judicial source said.

"They are unlikely to spend any time behind bars for these misdemeanours they are charged with."

Some doctors face charges of writing up false medical reports.

IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said the organisation's doping review board would meet in Monaco next week to review progress.

"The IAAF investigation is totally independent of the Greek authorities and we don't have to wait for a conclusion to their proceedings," he said.

Although the pair are still free to compete internationally, under IAAF rules an athlete can be banned for two years for failing "without compelling justification to submit to doping control."

Missing drugs tests is considered a serious doping offence and can attract a ban of up to two years.

Kenteris, a surprise 200 meters gold medallist at the 2000 Sydney Games, and Thanou, who won a 100 meters silver in Sydney, have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and suggested they were victims of a set-up.

"I had never been notified of the test and suddenly people were saying I could be thrown out of the Games," Kenteris, 31, said last month in his only interview since the Games. "The accident did occur."

The fall from grace of the two athletes, national heroes after their successes in Sydney, was the biggest Olympic doping scandal since 100 meters gold medallist Ben Johnson tested positive for drugs at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Kenteris and Thanou holed up in an Athens hospital for four days saying they were too ill to help Olympic officials with their inquiries. The injuries were officially blamed for their subsequent decision to scratch from their events.