Cycling: Colombian regains Olympic bronze medal

LONDON - Colombian rider Maria-Luisa Calle has regained the bronze medal she lost at last year's Athens Olympics after testing positive for a banned stimulant.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) today overturned the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to strip her of the Women's Points Race medal because she had not ingested the substance which turned up in her sample.

"The parties agreed that the presence of heptaminol in the appellant's urine sample was not due to the appellant having ingested that substance but was the result of the ingestion of neo-saldina containing isometheptene, a substance which transforms into heptaminol during laboratory analyses," CAS said.

Calle was prescribed neo-saldina by a doctor attached to the Colombian National Olympic Committee delegation for a migraine headache.

The CAS Panel noted that isometheptene was not mentioned on the 2004 prohibited pist applicable at the Games.

Calle's medal was one of two won by Colombia in Athens.

Her initial disqualification meant that American Erin Mirabella, who finished fourth in the event, took the bronze. The IOC will now amend the result.

Russia's Olga Slyusareva won gold and Mexico's Belem Guerrero Mendez took silver.

- REUTERS