Melinte thrown out amid double dope gold
Ellina Zvereva, 39, of Belarus became the oldest woman to win a track and field gold when she took the women's discus with a throw of 68.40 metres. Zvereva has served a 12-month suspension for taking steroids.
Olga Shishigina of Kazakhstan, who has served a two-year drugs ban, won the 100 metres hurdles in front of sentimental favourite Glory Alozie from Nigeria. The African champion's fiance was killed by a car in Sydney before the start of the Games.
In unprecedented scenes at an Olympic Games, Romanian Melinte was told she had also tested positive for nandrolone and was led away from the field.
The IAAF general secretary Istvan Gyulai said the world governing body had rejected Melinte's excuse that she had ingested the anabolic steroid from a food supplement. CJ Hunter used the same defence at his news conference.
Several other Olympic and world champions failed to survive the day - but for differing reasons.
Jinxed Gail Devers, Nourredine Morceli, Svetlana Masterkova and ageing Sergey Bubka joined the ever-growing champions' casualty list as all failed to reach their respective finals.
Devers, a double Olympic sprint champion but who has never won her favoured 100 metres hurdles event, crashed out of the semifinal after clipping a barrier.
ALGERIAN Morceli, 1,500 metres gold medallist in 1996 and, like Devers, a triple world champion, also failed to survive his semifinal after a collision with another competitor.
The 36-year-old Bubka, meanwhile, world champion six times in a row and the holder of 17 world records, failed to get over his opening height in the pole vault.
Earlier yesterday, women's 800 and 1,500 metres champion Svetlana Masterkova of Russia pulled up in the heats of the longer event with a calf injury and burst into tears.
The 33-year-old Devers, a massive favourite, cleared four hurdles and then slowed down after apparently losing her stride pattern and ran into the fifth barrier.
The American, unmistakable with her long painted fingernails, now looks certain to end her illustrious career without an Olympics hurdles title, even though she has vowed not to retire.
``Why should I retire?,'' she said. ``I'm 33 and I'm running faster than I have ever run in my life.''
In 1992 she led the final before looking across at her rivals and clattering into the final hurdle to finish fifth. Four years later, she was fourth.
She added on Wednesday: ``I don't believe in luck in track and field in the first place, it's skill.''
Morceli might disagree. He tripped 100 metres from the finish of his 1,500 metres semifinal after colliding with another competitor.
The 30-year-old former world record holder, who has not raced much this year, lost his momentum and he came to a virtual standstill before jogging over the line.
Bubka's demise, at the Ukranian's opening height of 5.70 metres, was mirrored by French 1996 champion Jean Galfione's failure to progress to Friday's final. Struggling for fitness after a recent lung operation, Galfione could only clear 5.55.
No champion, however, has gone out in sadder fashion than Syria's Ghada Shouaa at the Sydney Games.
She managed just two hurdles of her opening heat in the heptathlon on Saturday, clutching an injured calf as she crashed to the ground and out of the Olympics.
ROMANIAN gymnast Andreea Raducan still doesn't know if she'll leave the Sydney Olympics with one gold medal or two.
After hearing 4 hours of testimony, the Court of Arbitration for Sport is deliberating whether the 16-year-old can keep the all-around gold medal she lost because she took cold medicine that contained a banned substance.
The court promised a decision today.
``It's a very interesting and serious matter,'' Ion Tiriac, president of Romania's Olympic committee, said after the hearing. ``For that reason, I would like you to be so kind and patient as to wait as we do.''
Independent News Service and other agencies
- By KEVIN JOHNSON
