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LAUSANNE, Switzerland – Netherlands Antilles sprinter Churandy Martina lost his appeal Friday to be reinstated as silver medalist in the 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Martina's claim that he should be listed as runner-up behind Usain Bolt, who broke the world record in the race.

Shawn Crawford keeps second place, even though the American already gave his silver medal to Martina. Walter Dix of the U.S. keeps the bronze medal.

Martina crossed the line in second place but was disqualified for running out of his lane after a protest by the U.S. team. Martina and his Caribbean island team claimed the protest was filed too late and appealed to CAS, the highest tribunal in sports. The appeal was filed against the International Association of Athletics Federations and U.S. Olympic Committee.

The CAS arbitrator ruled that, under IAAF rules, the decision by the jury of appeal in Beijing is final and not subject to further appeal.

"Furthermore, the sole arbitrator did.....

Home Depot Inc., citing the tough economic climate, has ended its much-ballyhooed program that gave Olympic athletes part-time jobs, flexible hours and full-time pay and benefits to help support their training.

In the 16 years that Home Depot has sponsored the U.S. and Puerto Rico Olympic and Paralympic teams, it has employed 600 athletes who have won 145 medals. Home Depot's sponsorship amounted to a $15 million to $20 million commitment over four years, said one person familiar with the matter.

Up to 300 test results taken from athletes at the Beijing Olympics have gone missing, says a report by official drug testing observers who attended the Games.

The team of 10 independent observers, who were given the task of reporting on drug testing procedures at the Games, detailed the startling news in their official report to the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The Report of the Independent Observers states: "Once the [Beijing] laboratory had apparently delivered all reports to the independent observer team, it transpired that around 300 test results were missing in comparison to the doping control forms."

The team checked the status of the laboratory results with the International Olympic Committee medical chairman, Dr Arne Ljungqvist, and the observers reported that the IOC also "may be missing some reports".

The independent observers were so concerned by the missing tests that they have reserved the right to submit further comment on the process, pending further cross-checking.

They also uncovered some surprising deviations from normal drug testing procedures, including the fact that the Beijing laboratory couldn't test for one banned substances - insulin. The observers noted that the samples would be stored for eight years and could be retested if the IOC deemed it necessary. Another concern was that the laboratory had failed to detect one of the quality control samples that had contained a prohibited substance.

The observers also reported that nearly half the national Olympic committees did not provide data on the whereabouts of their athletes to enable effective pre-Games and out-of-competition drug testing. The numbers tested for erythro-poetin (EPO) were "relatively low, notably in the sports where the use of EPO has been detected".

Initially, more than 110 national Olympic committees - out of the 204 teams competing - failed to.... READ MORE

The IOC said its doping lab in Switzerland would be specifically testing for Cera, an advanced version of endurance-enhancing hormone EPO.

The decision comes after French officials detected Cera during retesting of Tour de France samples.

However, it is thought the retests will cover all sports, not just cycling.

IOC president Jacques Rogge explained: "Our message is very clear. The IOC will not miss any opportunity to further analyse samples retroactively.

"We hope that this will work as a strong deterrent and make athletes think twice before cheating."

The decision was welcomed by a...  Read More

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