Athletics: Irish runner admits taking banned drugs

Irish 10,000m runner Cathal Lombard has admitted in a newspaper interview taking banned performance-enhancing drug EPO just four days before the start of the Athens Games.

Lombard, 28, who failed a test for EPO, or erythropoietin, a blood-boosting substance which enhances endurance, was quoted as saying "hands up, I did it" in the Irish Examiner yesterday.

"At the moment, subject to looking at all the information, I would be unlikely to contest the findings," he said.

"There was nobody else involved at all. I am not trying to justify what I did in any way.

"I am saying this was the case and this is what I did and, hands up, I did it."

The Athletic Association of Ireland had earlier said Lombard had failed a test for EPO and had been asked to a hearing in Dublin today.

Lombard set an Irish 10,000m record in California earlier this year and finished 17th in the 10,000m final at the 2003 world championships.

He was due to compete in the 10,000m race in Athens.

Meanwhile, two members of the Greek baseball team for the Olympics have tested positive for banned substances.

"It is 100 per cent [true] that two Greek-Americans [in the team] have failed a first drug test. We will not announce names until the second sample has been tested," a spokesman said.

Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia had reported earlier that one member of the team had tested positive for a steroid and another for a diuretic.