Thanou poised for Beijing slot after two-year ban

GREEK sprinter Katerina Thanou, banned for two years after a doping scandal on the eve of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, has made the team for next month's Games and could travel to Beijing.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) included Thanou in the Greece squad after she finished fifth in a 100 metres race on the island of Crete late on Monday with a time of 11.39 seconds. "She has made the B time for the team, so she is on it," Greece's chef de mission Isidoros Kouvelos said.

The B time is the lower qualification mark that if beaten by another Greek athlete in the same discipline would force Thanou out of the team, although that is highly unlikely.

"Officially, she has now made the team but we do not yet know if she wants to go to Beijing," an HOC official said.