Disgraced Olympic sprinter training for comeback: reports

Sep 22, 2006, 17:46 GMT

Athens - Disgraced Olympic sprinter Katerina Thanou, banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for evading drug testing, is training for her comeback, newspaper reports Friday said.

Thanou and her male compatriot Konstantinos Kenteris were banned from competition by the athletics ruling body IAAF after missing three dope tests in the immediate run-up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

But with her ban ending on December 22 of this year, it seems Thanou has had a change of heart and has been training in recent months at the Greek athletics federation training facility at Agios Kosmas on the coast to the east of Athens.

'I am doing some serious training, nor just to keep fit. If I wanted something like that, I would join a gym or play tennis,' she was quoted by the Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini as saying.

Thanou and Kenteris were medal favourites at the 2004 Olympics but on the eve of the opening ceremony they avoided drug testing and checked into a hospital claiming to have been victims of a motorcycle accident and withdrew from competition.

Thanou, 2002 European champion and silver-medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, initially indicated that she was ending her career.

It remains unclear whether Kenteris, 33, intends making a comeback when his ban ends.