Cathal Lombard arrived back home in Cork last night and is expected later today to formally respond to his positive test for the performance enhancing drug EPO. The Athletics Association of Ireland has given Lombard until 5.30pm this evening to offer a formal response to the test, and its findings, carried out at a recent high altitude training camp in Switzerland.
There are strong indications the athlete will respond before that deadline expires. He faces a two year ban if found guilty.
Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has predicted there will be more failed drugs tests at this year's Games in Athens than there were in Sydney four years ago.
Rogge has made the targeting of doping cheats one of the central planks of his term in office and while the cases of high-profile American athletes such as Kelli White, plus the on-going BALCO investigation have cast an unwanted degree of suspicion over the entire Games, the Belgian has vowed the battle will continue.
He said: "The news recently has been marked by a growing number of positive doping cases. Paradoxically, this is an encouraging sign that the fight against doping is gaining ground, and that it is becoming increasingly hard to cheat. Let us continue together to increase education, prevention and punishment, with additional doping controls and more scientific research."
Filed by Mark O'Neill-Cummins
