Athens - A group of 11 Greek weightlifters who tested positive for banned substances have asked a public prosecutor to be given until early next month to testify on doping charges. The coach of the 11 weightlifters from the Greek national team, Christos Iacovou, was suspended after news broke that almost the entire men's and women's national teams had failed tests conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on March 7.
The athletes' coach blamed the test results on a faulty batch of dietary supplements by Chinese drugmaker, Auspure Biotechnology.
The Beijing News newspaper reported on Wednesday that the Chinese company which supplied the illegal substances was not an authorized company.
The lawyer of 10 of the athletes of the Greek national team said they support Iacovou. One athlete, Vassiliki Kasapi, however, took legal action against the Weightlifting Federation on Wednesday saying she was unknowingly being placed at risk by taking the drugs.
"It is unheard of that Kasapi would risk her life by taking the drugs," said Alexis Kougias, Kasapi's lawyer outside of Athens Court House.
The team coach, physiotherapists, doctors as well as the pharmacist of the National Team will testify before a public prosecutor on Thursday.
Health Ministry inspectors have searched a warehouse in central Greece which is used to store dietary supplements and conducted raids at three more locations, including the training facilities of the Greek weightlifting team and a pharmacy as part of the judicial investigation into the doping scandal.
The scandal has thrown the Greek weightlifting team's preparations for the upcoming Beijing Olympics into turmoil.
Reports said the athletes told the investigative committee, set up by the Greek Weightlifting Federation, that they took vitamin supplements and were not aware that they may have contained banned substances.
The results of the second tests on the sample taken from the weightlifters are due to be known this week.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) could ban the Greek team for up to two years but said on its website that "as long as the cases are in process, the IWF shall have no further comments."
Greek media reports said the initial tests found that the drug was trenbolone acetate, a steroid normally used by veterinarians on livestock to increase muscle growth and appetite.
Iacovou, 60, is one of Greece's most respected coaches, whose team has won five Olympic gold medals along with five silver and two bronze since the 1992 games in Barcelona.
Under IWF anti-doping rules, entire teams can be suspended from international competitions for up to two years if three or more athletes fail doping tests within one year.
The IWF has spoken out such bans before, but then changed them into fines. Iran, Russia, Argentina and Kazakhstan for instance were allowed to compete at the 2006 worlds after paying a 50,000-dollar (32,000 euros) fine for each caught athlete (in Iran's case 450,000 dollars for nine positive tests).
Weightlifting has been plagued by doping over the years, with 42 athletes suspended in 2007 alone, according to the IWF website.
Greece was also involved, with Leonidas Sampanis losing his Olympic 63kg category bronze 2004 in Athens after over a positive test.
