Egypt’s world javelin silver medallist Ihab Abdelrahman has been barred from the Rio Games by his national Olympic Committee on Tuesday after testing positive for banned substances.
Abdelrahman, who won silver in last year’s world championships in Beijing, had been asked to travel to Barcelona, where his tests were analysed, for a second one to confirm the results.
The 27-year-old refused, demanding a new test take place after the Rio Games which get underway on August 5.
Another athlete, hammer thrower Mostafa al-Gamel, will also miss the Games because of injury.
“They have both been excluded,” Mamduh al-Shishtawi, the executive director of the Egyptian Olympics Committee, told AFP.
Doping has been to the forefront of the run-up to the Summer Games with Russia’s participation already under fierce scrutiny over state-sponsored doping.
Vesely joins Czech Olympic exit
Jiri Vesely yesterday became the latest Czech tennis player to pull out of Rio Olympics. The world number 49 said he has been suffering from chest pain and could not travel to Brazil for the Games which get underway on August 5. “The doctor prescribed antibiotics for me for 10 days, so it would be meaningless to go,” Vesely told the CTK press agency. The 23-year-old joins Czech number one Tomas Berdych and women’s number two Karolina Pliskova, after they both pulled out because of concerns over the threat of the Zika virus. Lukas Rosol, the world No 83, will be the sole competitor from the Czech Republic in the men’s singles in Brazil.
Ihab Abdelrahman
