Roll of dishonour

Five competitors have tested positive for banned drugs in competition tests carried out during the Sydney Olympics.

One was escorted away from the athletics arena on Wednesday after failing a test before the Games while several others were forced to leave the Olympics after results of their tests were made known.

On Saturday, the International Olympic Committee announced that Russian 400 metres runner Svetlana Pospelova had tested positive for steroids during an out-of-competition test during the Games.

Following is a list of the main drug cases which have affected the Games up until Saturday.

Announcements of tests taken during competition

Sept 20: IVAN IVANOV - Bulgarian weightlifter Ivanov, a four-times world champion, is stripped of his Olympic 56kg silver after testing positive for a diuretic.

Sept 22: IZABELA DRAGNEVA, SEVDALIN MINCHEV - Dragneva, gold medal winner in the women's 48 kg category, and men's 62 kg bronze medallist Minchev, also of Bulgaria, lose their medals and expelled after testing positive for diuretic.

Sept 24: ANDRIS REINHOLDS - Latvian rower, who failed to make single sculls final, kicked out of Olympics after steroid nandrolone found in his urine. Faces a life ban.

Sept 26: ANDREEA RADUCAN - Romanian gymnast Raducan, 16, stripped of her all round gold medal after testing positive for drug contained in a cold remedy. Romanian team doctor expelled. Romanians take case to Court of Arbitration for Sport but appeal rejected on Thursday.

Announcements of other tests

Sept 13:

CHEN PO-PU - Taiwanese weightlifter, a former world junior medallist, becomes the first athlete barred from the Games after a positive test for methandienone in Taiwan in August.

IVA PRANDZHEVA - Bulgarian triple jumper, the 1995 world silver medallist, tests positive for nandrolone. She was also banned for two years for taking drugs at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

YEVGENIA YERMAKOVA - Kazakhstan freestyle swimmer is barred after failing a drugs test for a diuretic in Monaco in May.

Sept 15 (Day of opening ceremony):

TRAEAN CIHAREAN, ANDREI MATEIAS - Weightlifters Ciharean, a 1992 Olympic bronze medallist, and Mateias are withdrawn from the Romanian team after failing tests. A third man, Razvan Ilie, is also removed for doping earlier in the year.

Sept 17:

STIAN GRIMSETH - Norwegian super heavyweight weightlifter is suspended after failing a dope test earlier in the month.

ANOSHERAVAN NOURIAN - Iranian light-welterweight boxer is thrown out following an out-of-competition test before the Games.

CEZAR BADITA - Romanian swimmer Cezar Badita, facing a four-year ban after failing a drugs test for nandrolone in May, is allowed to swim in the 400m individual medley final because his case is under appeal. He finishes seventh in his final. The case will be concluded after the Games and his performances over the preceding six months will be annulled if the positive verdict is upheld by world governing body FINA.

Sept 18:

DIETER BAUMANN - Germany's 1992 Olympic 5,000 metres champion, is banned for two years after testing positive for nandrolone last November.

Sept 19:

ALEKSANDR BAGACH - Ukrainian shot putter Bagach, 1996 Atlanta Olympics bronze medallist, misses the Games after failing a drugs test for the third time in his career. The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) sends his case to arbitration after he tested positive for steroids earlier in the year.

EMMAUNEL MAGNIEN - French rider is banned for three months by the International Cycling Union (UCI) after testing positive for corticoids during Tour de France and misses Games.

SIMON KEMBOI, DUPE OSIME - Kenyan Kemboi, a member of the 4x400 metres relay team, and Nigerian woman 800 metres runner Osime are barred after testing positive for nandrolone after random tests by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Sept 20:

VADIM DEVYATOVSKY - Hammer thrower from Belarus is sent home after testing positive for nandrolone in an out-of-competition test in the Olympic village.

ERIC LAMAZE - Showjumper Lamaze fails to get back on to Canada's Olympics team despite winning a reprieve from a lifetime ban for using cocaine last month. The Canadian Olympic Association decides he has breached an agreement he signed pledging not to use narcotics.

JAN HRUSKA - Czech cyclist Hruska is thrown out of the Games after testing positive for an unspecified banned substance.

Sept 25:

C J HUNTER - IAAF announces U.S. shot putter Hunter, husband of women's 100 metres champion Marion Jones has tested positive for nandrolone. On Sept 26, IOC medical commission chief Alexandre de Merode announces Hunter tested positive for substance four times in June and July. Hunter had already withdrawn from Games citing injury.

Sept 27:

MIHAELA MELINTE - Romania's world champion hammer thrower escorted away from athletics arena at Games as she prepared to compete because she had failed a test for nandrolone before the Games.

Sept 30:

SVETLANA POSPELOVA - IOC announces Russia's European indoor 400 metres champion Pospelova tested positive for banned steroid stanozolol in an out-of-competition test carried out at Games. The test cannot be regarded as a complete positive case until all the details have been discussed and analysed. Pospelova had already left Sydney.

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