Drugs in Sport: Games weightlifter fails test: Canadian stripped of bronze medals

JIM DAN CORBETT, a Canadian weightlifter, was stripped of his Commonwealth bronze medals in the three 83kg events after the banned stimulants ephedrine and pseudo ephedrine were found in his samples.

The Games Federation announced that he would not be punished further because of a 'careful investigation' by the Canadian Association to identify possible sources of the substances.

Miguel Indurain, the four- times Tour De France winner, should not be punished for testing positive for a drug banned in France, according to Prince Alexandre de Merode, the head of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission.

De Merode said yesterday he had spoken to the International Cycling Union and supported their position that Indurain was taking a drug that both the IOC and UCI allowed sportsmen with asthma to use.

'Any punishment of this sportsman would be unfair,' de Merode said. 'I entirely support the international cycling federation that there was no case of doping.'

Indurain tested positive after the Tour de L'Oise on 15 May for the drug Salbutamol, which is found in some inhalers used by asthma sufferers. However, it is banned altogether by the French sports ministry.

De Merode yesterday confirmed that a number of documents detailing a number of positive drug tests were taken from his Los Angeles hotel room after the 1984 Summer Games and destroyed. However, he claimed there were a number of errors in a recent BBC television documentary which alleged a cover-up over the missing tests.

De Merode, head of the IOC's medical commission since 1967, said the Olympic testing laboratory informed him the day after the Los Angeles closing ceremony of 'five or six' positive drug tests. The documentary claimed there had been nine positive tests which involved the use of the most serious category of drugs: anabolic steroids.

A swimming meet in Mulhouse, France, on 14 September has banned the Chinese women's team because of their drugs-tarnished image.