Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
The Age, Australia
July 15 2004
D-Day for accused Olympic athletes
Friday is D-Day for two Australian Olympic athletes accused of drug
offences.
Weightlifter Caroline Pileggi will learn whether her appeal against
being dumped from the Athens Games is successful, and cyclist Jobie
Dajka is expecting to learn the outcome of police investigations into
him.
Accused cyclist Sean Eadie, meanwhile, will have a nervous weekend.
His appeal against a drugs infraction notice for allegedly importing
banned human growth hormones will be heard in the Court of
Arbitration for Sport in Sydney on Monday evening.
Pileggi, who was to have been Australia’s first Olympic female
weightlifter, was dropped from the Athens team after refusing a drugs
test in Fiji in June.
But she told the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Melbourne that
she fled from two drug testing officials in Sigatoka, Fiji, because
she did not know who they were.
“I didn’t feel safe,” she told the tribunal.
One of the New Zealand testing officials, acting on behalf of the
Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA), later admitted that he was not
familiar with the regulations and had not correctly identified
himself at their first meeting.
He also said he had not followed the correct procedure for signing
the form.
“The circumstances were less than ideal,” Vaughan Jones told senior
Tribunal member Narelle Bell.
Dajka expects to know the outcome of police investigations into his
case, including possible links with an Adelaide veterinarian.
Dajka, 22, has had his nomination for the Athens team suspended
pending police inquiries and continuing investigations by former WA
Supreme Court judge Robert Anderson, QC.
The clock is ticking on a number of other matters which need to be
resolved before the July 21 deadline for finalising Australia’s
Athens team, expected to number 475.
These include:
+ A Customs check on all potential Athens team members to determine
whether any of them may have been involved in importing banned
substances. The Australian Sports Commission expects results on
Friday. These will be forwarded to the Australian Olympic Committee,
which is waiting to finalise the team.
+ The result of a drugs test on former Armenian weightlifter Sergo
Chakhoyan. Chakhoyan, who served a two-year suspension after testing
positive at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane in 2001, was recently
tested in Armenia. A spokesman for the ASDA said the outcome was
expected in the next few days.
+ The outcome of four appeals by track and field athletes who missed
out on selection – Patrick Johnson (100m, 200m), Tim Williams (4x100m
relay), Annabelle Smith (400m), and Paul Pearce (4x400m relay). The
appeal will be heard in Sydney on Friday and the results are expected
on the day.
Mountain biker Josh Fleming was added to the Athens team after
successfully appealing his original non-selection.
Cycling Australia’s appeals tribunal found that the selection
criteria had been incorrectly applied.
Fleming, 28, replaces South Australian Chris Jongewaard, 24.
