By John Bagratuni Aug 11, 2008, 13:14 GMT
Beijing - Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno has tested positive for the blood booster EPO, making her the first doping offender in Olympic testing at the Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Monday.
IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said that Moreno, 27, failed a test conducted on July 31 in the Olympic village and flew home the same night 'before having heard the results of her tests.' She was due to compete in the road time trial.
Moreno was formally kicked out of the Games by the IOC on Monday with further sanctions lying with the cycling body UCI. She faces a two-year ban.
The IOC is carrying out a record 4,500 tests in Beijing in the Olympic period July 27-August 24. That is 1,000 tests more than in Athens 2004, where 26 athletes were caught cheating.
'The IOC means business in stamping out these who are not playing by the rules,' said Davies.
Cycling has been dogged by doping in recent years and Spain is one of the countries with several offenders. Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado of Spain testing positive for EPO at the Tour de France last month.
That is no surprise, UCI boss Pat McQuaid told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone interview.
'I am surprised and indeed extremely annoyed because of this doping case in the Olympics. Having said that, the fact that the doping was Spanish does not particularly surprise me,' McQuaid said, saying Spanish authorities are 'too lenient in their approach to doping' in cycling.
'In many other countries you always get individuals (caught in doping). But these countries have been attacking the problem over the past several years. I think Spain is behind.
'(Spanish authorities) need to realize and deal with it. It is a serious problem and needs to be treated as such. There needs to be a very strong campaign, a huge number of increased tests, investigations into the people who are in the background, providing the doping products,' he said.
But Spanish Olympic Committe president Alejandro Blanco and State Scetretary for Sports Jaime Lissavetzki insisted that Spain was doing its best to fight substance abuse.
'It is regrettable. We have a small quantity of doped athletes compared to the number of tests we carry out,' said Blanco.
Lissavetzki said: 'The situation of Spanish cycling is good. We won a lot of events but we have many controls as well.'
The last three Tour de France title went to Spanish riders, Oscar Pereiro, Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastra. On Saturday, Samuel Sanchez won the Olympic road race in Beijing.
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