Two Greek Baseball Players Test Positive For Drugs (update)

ATHENS, Aug 9 (AFP) - Two baseball players from Greece`s Olympic team were Monday poised to be barred from the Games after both were confirmed to have tested positive for drugs, the Hellenic Olympic Committee said in a statement.
"The Hellenic Olympic Committee wishes to inform you that, after the anti-doping control, which took place on August 5, the analysis of the B sample of the two baseball athletes was also found positive," the statement said.
The two were named in the statement as Andrew James Brack and Derek Nicholson, both US citizens of Greek descent.
Earlier Monday, the head of the Greek baseball federation, Panayiotis Mitsopoulos, told AFP that the two players` "A" samples had returned positive results for two separate banned substances.
One of the players had tested positive for the steroid stanozolol and the other for the diuretic hydrochloro-thiazide, he said.
The doping scandal came just four days before the start of the Games, but government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos vowed it would not be allowed to dampen the Olympic spirit.
"At every Games, there are happy and unfortunate incidents," he told a press conference, adding: "This will not weigh on the atmosphere of the Games and does not discredit them.
"I hope there will not be others."
The head of the Greek Olympic delegation, Yiannis Papadoyiannakis, told a press conference before the "B" test result was known: "It`s sad to be talking about drugs today. We won`t make a gift to anybody. It`s not enough to appear honest, you also have to be honest."
He also said that if the second samples also returned positive results, "we have proposed that the athletes be banned" from the Greek Olympic team.
The final say on whether to bar the two baseball players -- who, like most of the 24 members of the Greek Olympic baseball team, are US citizens of Greek descent -- lies with the International Olympic Committee.
Brack had been named to play on the Olympic team while Nicholson was among the reserves for the nine-man side.
"Of course, this is unfortunate news. But on the other hand it also has a positive side because it shows that Greece will stage clean Olympics," baseball federation chief Mitsopoulos said.
Stanozolol is a man-made steroid, similar to the naturally occurring steroid, testosterone, and is used in the treatment of hereditary angioedema, which causes episodes of swelling of the face, extremities, genitals, bowel wall and throat.
Hydrochloro-thiazide is a diuretic that increases the excretion of salt and water in the urine. Diuretics are on the list of banned substances because they are often used as masking agents for steroids.
The test was one of many conducted in the run-up to the Games by the Greek Olympic Committee.
Papadoyiannakis said 570 Greek athletes, including the 430 on the Olympic team, have been tested for illegal substances between June 10 and August 7.
"The Greek Olympic Committee does its job," he said, referring to the fight against doping in sport.
"Whatever it finds, it stamps it out."