Swimming: Kazakhstan drug cheat trained in Auckland

Kazakhstan swimmer Yevgenia Yermakova, one of the three athletes kicked out of the Sydney Games on Wednesday night for a positive dope test, has been based in Auckland for over a year.

She swam in the Auckland summer and winter carnivals, Auckland Swimming Association chairman David Jack confirmed yesterday.

She is a member of the Onehunga Swimming Club, where top New Zealand swimmer Trent Bray also trained, although Bray is a member of the Roskill club.

It is understood that Yermakova lived with her partner in Auckland and did most of her Games preparation here.

Auckland swimmers and officials, including Jack, were shocked to learn that Yermakova had tested positive for drugs.

"She swam for Onehunga club, which is part of the Auckland Swimming Association, and I know she was competing for Kazakhstan," Jack said. "We're just checking out what the exact situation is."

Yermakova, aged 24, was tested during an international competition in Monaco, in May.

"Her country would have got her tested, or wherever she competed - that's the normal procedure," Jack said.

Swimming's international governing body, Fina, said in a letter to the International Olympic Committee that Yermakova was not eligible to swim in Sydney after failing the test after the Monaco meeting.

"The Fina executive, on September 9, 2000, has decided to provisionally suspend the swimmer without a hearing," the letter said.

The suspension followed a positive test for furosemide, a diuretic that is on the Fina list of prohibited substances.

Yermakova represented the Soviet Union and was a finalist in the 50m and 100m freestyle at the 1991 world champs before swimming for Kazakhstan at the Atlanta Games.

Two positive dope tests for steroids, involving a Taiwanese weightlifter and a Bulgarian triple jumper, were also announced on Wednesday night.

Taiwan's Chen Po-pu became the first athlete to be expelled from Sydney for doping after a positive test for methandienone.

Bulgarian triple jumper Iva Prandzheva tested positive for the steroid nandrolone.

Prandzheva, a silver medallist at the 1995 world championships, was one of only two people caught for taking drugs at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

She was banned for two years for taking methandienone.

- NZPA