KEY POINTS:
ATHENS - Greek sprinter Costas Kenteris, whose two-year suspension following a controversial doping rule violation at the 2004 Athens Olympics ends next week, said he planned to make his comeback at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Speaking to the monthly Greek magazine Status, Kenteris, who together with fellow Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou settled their case with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) earlier this year, said he still had a point to prove.
Kenteris and Thanou caused the biggest Olympic doping scandal since Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100m gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Games following a positive drugs test.
They were accused of missing a doping test and staging a motorcycle accident to avoid testers on the eve of the Athens Games.
The pair were cleared by a Greek disciplinary committee but the IAAF appealed the verdict and took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport before settling the case ahead of the final hearing in June.
Details of the deal that allows them to return to competition as of December 22, were never revealed.
"I will do everything I can to be ready for Beijing," said Kenteris, who nowadays rarely speaks to media and only in return for a fee.
"That is why I may not race at all during 2007.
"Before the 2004 Olympics I had decided that the 200m race there would be the last of my career. But the way things have turned out I think it is worth trying again," he told December's issue of the magazine.
Kenteris, who won gold in the 200m at the 2000 Sydney Games, and Thanou a 100m silver medallist at the same Olympics, were the country's biggest medals hopes for the Athens Games.
All tickets for the 100m and 200m qualifiers and finals had been snapped up months in advance by Greek fans.
But their withdrawal amid a media frenzy despite claiming they had done nothing wrong disappointed thousands of Greeks who felt let down by the athletes and their former coach, who was given a four-year suspension by the Greek disciplinary committee for his role in the affair.
Kenteris admitted his age was a drawback in his bid to return.
"I am already racing against time. I am 33," he said.
"But I want simply to race again. My biggest victory will be just kneeling down on the track at the start line."
The two athletes and former coach Christos Tzekos still face separate charges in Greek courts for providing authorities with false information regarding the motorcycle crash.
He did not make any specific reference to Tzekos, who had managed and led Kenteris to Olympic, World championship, and European championship gold medals, but the sprinter admitted to trusting the wrong people.
"I have made many mistakes. For example I trusted people and gave them power although I should not have done this," he said.
- REUTERS
