Posted: April 1, 2005

Athletics: CAS Rules Against Hungarian Throwers, Annus, Fazekas Lose Medals

By Bob Ramsak, Track Profile

(c) 2004 Track Profile all rights reserved TrackProfile.com

An appeal by hammer thrower Adrian Annus and discus thrower Robert Fazekas has been dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport today, forcing the Hungarian athletes to forfeit their 2004 Olympic gold medals.

In a written ruling issued today, CAS sided with the International Olympic Committee's decision to disqualify the duo, charging them with failing to provide post-competition testing samples.

In the case of Annus, the reigning European hammer throw champion, the CAS panel found that he "was aware that he had to appear to a doping control in Bucsu, Hungary, three days after his return from Athens," a statement released today by CAS read. "The CAS arbitrators considered that there was no justification for his failure to show up for the doping control, which means that he evaded sample collection and thus committed a doping offence pursuant to the IOC anti-doping rules."

Annus, who provided negative samples prior to and after the Olympic competition, failed to meet a deadline for a third sample requested by the IOC after his initial samples "showed evidence of belonging to two different athletes, indicating possible tampering."

For Fazekas, the reigning European champion in the discus, CAS "established that the athlete failed to provide a proper urine sample, without any compelling justification, on the occasion of the doping control organised shortly after the discus throw event in Athens."

At the time, Fazekas said his failure to provide a sample was justified because of “psychological trauma” caused by the doping control staff. CAS dismissed his defense, adding, "although Fazekas was unable to provide a sufficient quantity of urine during the test, he decided voluntarily to interrupt the doping control process even though he had the opportunity to be transferred to the Polyclinic in the Olympic village to continue the sample collection."

Since the conclusion of the games, both athletes had announced their retirement. Initially, Annus refused to return his gold medal, but eventually did only after the IOC threatened to suspend Hungary's membership.

After their disqualifications in Athens, Koji Murofushi of Japan was awarded the gold medal in the hammer throw, while Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania was given the gold in the discus.

The hearings, held separately for each athlete, took place in mid-February.

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