Romanians back in Games

Four members of the Romanian weightlifting team have been allowed to stay on at the Olympics after a fine was paid to cancel out the blanket ban imposed after doping offences.

International Weightlifting Federation officials have confirmed the move, with Marioara Munteanu lining up with other athletes entered for the women's Olympic 53kg on Monday.

The other three athletes, all male, who tested clean will be allowed to stay after the $50,000 fine was paid.

Traian Ciharean and Adrian Mateia tested positive for banned substances while a third man, Razvan Ilie, tested positive in May.

Ciharean and Mateia deny drug use and said they would go on hunger strike if they are not tested again to prove their innocence.

But Romanian Olympic Committee chief Ion Tiriac said Ciharean had also failed a separate doping test in August and would be sent home.

Of the fine, head coach Niku Vlad said: "Yes. We paid it because it was not fair that the other athletes should go home."

Conflict

The ruling by the IWF may come into conflict with the ethics of the International Olympic Committee, but their Australian member Sam Coffa is adamant that they are only following procedure.

"As far as we are concerned, we have a rule and that is our rule and we can only abide by it, and what the IOC does is really for them to determine," he said.

The IOC had said earlier that all the lifters would have to leave the Games. IOC medical chief Patrick Schamasch added that a fine should never replace a sanction.

IOC director general Francois Carrard later backed Schamasch's line but he stressed that eligibility was a matter for the international federations.

"We always follow the decision of the international federation unless there is something extraordinary to reconsider it," he said.

Suspended

The Romanians had been suspended under a "three strikes and out" rule by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) after three of their lifters tested positive within a year.

Norwegian weightlifter Stian Grimseth has also been suspended from the Olympics after failing a dope test earlier this month.

Meanwhile, two other athletes could be thrown out of the Games after returning "problematic" out-of-competition drug tests.

The IOC did not identify the competitors but said they were in the athletes village.

On Wednesday Taiwanese weightlifter Chen Po-pu became the first athlete to go home from the Games after it was announced he had tested for methandienone in August.