LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AFP) - Sport's highest international arbitration body said it had received three new appeals relating to disputes during the Olympic Games in Athens.
Just hours after its arbitrators settled a controversy in men's gymnastic tournament at Athens, the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) said it had received an appeal by Russian cyclist Viatcheslav Ekimov calling for US rider Tyler Hamilton to be disqualified from the Olympic time trial.
Gold medal winner Hamilton was suspended by his Phonak team a day after he won a time trial on the Tour of Spain after results from two failed blood tests suggested he had been guilty of an illicit blood transfusion.
Hamilton's A sample taken in Athens a month earlier had produced similar results although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) could not test his B sample, which is needed to sanction any athlete, because it had been frozen instead of being refrigerated, rendering it untestable.
Ekimov and the Russian Olympic Committee are calling on the IOC to award Hamilton's gold in the time trial to the Russian silver medallist.
Hungarian weightlifters Zoltan Kovacs and Ferenc Gyurkovics lodged a challenge against the IOC's decision to disqualify them from the Olympic Games, CAS said.
Kovacs, who pulled out of the 105 kilogramme event, was excluded for failing to provide a urine sample during an anti-doping test, while Gyurkovics tested positive for the banned drug Oxandrolone.
Earlier Thursday, CAS rejected South Korean Olympic gymnastics bronze medallist Yang Tae-Young's claim for a gold in Athens due to a recognised judging error.
The arbitration body, which is sport's final court of appeal, is already examining appeals against doping charges in Athens by Hungarian discus thrower Laslo Fazekas and hammer thrower Adrian Annus, as well as Greek weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis.
Brazilian Olympic chiefs have also appealed to CAS about an incident that disrupted bronze medallist Vanderlei de Lima's marathon run.
10-21-2004, 18h21