Greek sprinters suspended

Sports Digest/ATHLETICS: The International Association of Athletics Federations will announce today that it has officially suspended the Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou.

A three-man commission, including the IAAF's president Lamine Diack, held a teleconference on Monday and decided the pair should be charged after missing a series of drugs tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens before the Olympic Games.

The failure of Kenteris, the 200m champion from the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and Thanou, the 100m silver medallist at the same games, to submit to drug tests in Athens and their claims of being involved in a motorcycle crash after which they spent four days in hospital led to both withdrawing from the games.

The sprinters will now have 14 days in which to respond to the IAAF and indicate whether they will request personal hearings before the Greek federation. If they are found guilty they could face bans of up to two years.

Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, the athletes' lawyer, has signalled that Kenteris and Thanou will fight any attempts to ban them, claiming they have passed 50 drugs tests during their careers. "We will exhaust all the means available under the law," he said.

Kenteris and Thanou are also facing the threat of jail in Greece, where the authorities have charged them with missing the drug test in Athens and faking the accident.

In all, eight criminal charges have been brought against the athletes, their former coach Christos Tzekos, eyewitnesses of the motorcycle incident and seven hospital doctors.

AWARD: Britain's double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes has been voted this year's top sportswoman, a Reuters poll of journalists shows.

Thirty-three sports editors and journalists from over 20 countries nominated up to three leading sportswomen of 2004.

Each first-place choice was awarded three points, second place got two points and third place received one point.

Holmes, who ran to victory in the 800 and 1,500 metres in Athens in August - grabbed the top spot with 68 points out of a possible 99.

Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova was voted into second place with 36 points and Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft nabbed third place with 28 points.

GOLF: Padraig Harrington is to stage a second charity golf show at the City West Hotel in Dublin on January 22nd because the first the previous day is a sell-out.

"I'm overwhelmed that it should sell out so quickly and that there is such a demonstration of public support for the Padraig Harrington Charitable Foundation," said the world number six.

WRITERS TROPHY: Europe's Ryder Cup team has won the 2004 Golf Writers Trophy - with captain Bernhard Langer finishing second in the annual poll.