Ramzi stripped of Olympic gold for doping

HAMBURG - Olympic 1,500-metre champion Rashid Ramzi has been stripped of his gold medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after testing positive for the banned blood-booster CERA.

Ramzi, who won Bahrain’s first ever Olympic gold medal in Beijing last summer, now faces a two-year ban. In addition, under IOC rules, the Moroccan-born Ramzi would be ineligible to compete in the 2012 London Olympics.

Cycling road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin of Italy has also been stripped of the medal he won in Beijing while German cyclist Stefan Schumacher, Croatian 800m runner Vanja Perisic and Greek walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka have also been disqualified for doping.

Although athletes returned negative tests at the time the samples were collected in August 2008, the IOC began the process of re-testing the samples in January of this year when a more up-to-date test for CERA became available.

Originally, six athletes showed adverse analytical findings in their A samples. However, weightlifter Yudelquis Maridalin Contreras from the Dominican Republic was not sanctioned due to the presence of CERA not being detected in her B sample.

“As part of its zero-tolerance policy against doping, the IOC is storing samples collected during the Olympic Games for eight years,” the IOC said in a statement.

“This allows the IOC to analyse samples retroactively should new fully validated tests to detect new prohibited substances/methods become available.”

Ramzi is likely to appeal his disqualification to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but if it is upheld then Asbel Kipruto Kiprop of Kenya will be upgraded from silver to gold in the 1,500-metre.

Nicolas Willis of New Zealand would take bronze instead of silver and fourth-place finisher Mehdi Baala of France would get the bronze.