Indian athlete fails drug test at Delhi Games

An unnamed track and field athlete representing the host nation India has failed a drugs test at the Commonwealth Games, becoming the third competitor in Delhi to be caught doping.

The competitor tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone, in yet another blow for the hosts to add to the catalogue of cock-ups during the Commonwealth Games, which conclude on Thursday.

A hearing is scheduled for later this afternoon but the athlete in question cannot be named because they may not yet have been notified of the positive result, according to Games chief Mike Fennell.

"We are not able to tell you the athlete's name yet but I can disclose that the sport is athletics and the country is India," he said. If found guilty, the athlete could be facing a two-year ban.

Over the past few days two Nigerian runners tested positive for banned stimulant methylhexanamine.

Samuel Okon, sixth in the men's 110m hurdles tested positive for the drug, but the real drama was in the women's 100m. Osayomi Oludamola was controversially awarded the 100m gold when Australia's Sally Pearson was disqualified for a false start.

But Oludamola was later stripped of the medal after her positive test, and the original bronze medalist Natasha Mayers of St Vincent and the Grenadines now has a gold.

England's fourth place finisher Katherine Endacott was upgraded to bronze because of Pearson's disqualification, and then to silver thanks to the Nigerian failing the drugs test.

Endacott had even more reason to celebrate on Tuesday night as the English women's sprint team, for who she ran the first leg, won gold in the 4x100m relay, albeit in the slowest winning time since 1966.

The men's team equalled that achievement as Mark Lewis-Francis ran a stupendous final leg to overhaul Jamaica and claim the gold in the men's event. ·