Sprinters' hearing postponed

Lawyers representing Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have succeeded in postponing until Wednesday the IOC disciplinary hearing into their missed drugs tests.

It is the second such delay and means the case will continue to cast its shadow over the Games for at least the next 48 hours, rather than there being a line drawn under the episode today.

The International Olympic Committee had initially been hoping to deal with the issue last Friday.

But they were scuppered because Kenteris and Thanou, who missed a random drugs test at the Games Village the previous night, had suffered injuries in a motorcycle accident just after midnight.

The duo have been in hospital since and their lawyer Michalis Dimitrakapoulos arrived at this morning's three-man disciplinary commission to ask for a further delay in proceedings.

Dimitrakapoulos emerged at 12:15pm local time (10:15am BST) to confirm that his request had been granted.

He had told the commission that the condition of both athletes is improving but that Kenteris is still complaining of headaches and Thanou has got a sore groin.