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Updated at 5:42 a.m., Sunday, September 21, 2008

Olympics: Hammer medalists get time to fight doping cases

By GRAHAM DUNBAR
Associated Press

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The IOC has given two Belarusian hammer throwers more time to fight allegations of doping at the Beijing Olympics.

Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan, who won silver and bronze in Beijing, have until Oct. 17 to provide more information explaining why they tested positive for abnormal traces of testosterone after the Aug. 17 hammer final.

The athletes emerged after spending 3½ hours Sunday with the International Olympic Committee's Disciplinary Commission.

"We are waiting and we hope," silver medalist Devyatovskiy said through an interpreter. "We know that we are clean but we are waiting for information."

The Belarus pair could be disqualified and stripped of their medals if found guilty of doping.

If disqualified, Devyatovskiy's medal would go to Krisztian Pars of Hungary, and Tsikhan's bronze would go to Koji Murofushi of Japan. Slovenia's Primoz Kozmus won the gold medal.

The 31-year-old Devyatovskiy faces a lifetime ban if found guilty of a second doping offense. He served a two-year drug suspension from 2000-02.

It would be a first offense for the 32-year-old Tsikhan, a three-time world champion and silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The commission heard a third case Sunday involving Polish canoeist Adam Seroczynski, who tested positive for clenbuterol, a prohibited anabolic agent.

The 34-year-old Seroczynski was a bronze medalist at the 2000 Sydney Games in the K4 class, but competed in the flatwater K2 class at Beijing. His 21-year-old teammate Mariusz Kujawski is not under suspicion. The pair finished fourth.

Seroczynski's legal adviser Ludwik Zukowski said before the hearing he would argue that the athlete did not know how the substance entered his body.

"We don't know how it could happen," Zukowski said. "The amount was so unbelievably small. Human beings don't use clenbuterol."

The disciplinary commission will rule on the Seroczynski case on Oct. 8.

The IOC disqualified six athletes for doping during the Beijing Games — Ukrainian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska, Ukrainian weightlifter Igor Razoronov, Greek hurdler Fani Halkia, North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su, Spanish cyclist Isabel Moreno and Vietnamese gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do.

Blonska was stripped of her silver medal, while Kim had his silver and bronze medals revoked.

The IOC carried out more than 5,000 doping tests at the Beijing Olympics.