Thanou's surprise comeback
ByReuters
Published 03/02/2007 at 19:23 GMT
Disgraced Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou made a surprise comeback to competition by competing in the Greek Indoors. It had been thought that she would not compete at the tournament on Saturday due to fitness problems.
ATHLETICS Thanou
Image credit: Imago
Thanou, 31, was banned from all competition for two years following a doping violation at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
She finished first in a time of 7.28 seconds. Thanou hopes to compete in the European Indoors next month in England.
Kenteris and Thanou caused the biggest Olympic doping scandal since Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100 metres gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Games following a positive drugs test.
They were accused of missing a doping test and staging a motorcycle accident to avoid testers on the eve of the Athens Games.
The pair were cleared by a Greek disciplinary committee but the IAAF appealed.
The case was taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport before being settled ahead of the final hearing.
Kenteris had said he was eyeing competing in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and that he had already started training.
Kenteris, who won gold in the 200m at the 2000 Sydney Games, and Thanou, a 100m silver medallist at the same Olympics, were Greece's biggest medal hopes for the Athens Games.
The two athletes and former coach Christos Tzekos still face separate charges in the Greek courts for providing authorities with false information regarding the motorcycle crash.
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