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Thanou returns to action after ban

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ATHENS, Greece -- Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou, who was banned from all competitions for two years following a controversial doping rule violation at the 2004 Athens Olympics, has competed in her first race since the ban ended.

Thanou, who together with fellow-banned Greek sprinter Costas Kenteris saw the suspension lifted late last year, competed in a 60-meter sprint competition at an indoor track meeting in the northern Athens suburb of Peania.

She came home first in a time of 7.28 seconds.

Kenteris and Thanou caused the biggest Olympic doping scandal since Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100 meters gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Games following a positive drugs test.

They were accused of missing a doping test and staging a motorcycle accident to avoid testers on the eve of the Athens Games.

The pair were cleared by a Greek disciplinary committee but the world governing body for athletics, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), appealed.

The case was taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport before being settled ahead of the final hearing.

Details of the deal that allowed them to return to competition from December 22 were never revealed.

Kenteris had said he is eyeing competing in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and that he had already started training.

Kenteris, who won gold in the 200m at the 2000 Sydney Games, and Thanou, a 100m silver medallist at the same Olympics, were the country's biggest medal hopes for the Athens Games.

The two athletes and former coach Christos Tzekos still face separate charges for providing authorities with false information regarding the motorcycle crash.

Defar smashes world record

Ethiopia's Meseret Defar smashed the world indoor record for the 3,000 meters on Saturday, clocking eight minutes 23.72 seconds in Stuttgart to take more than four seconds off the previous best time.

Defar, the Olympic 5,000m champion, was pushed all the way by compatriot Meselech Melkamu, who came in just two hundredths of a second behind her at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle.

The previous record of 8:27.86 was set last year by Russian Liliya Shobukhova in Moscow. "Meselech was very strong," Defar told reporters. "She led me to this record."

Defar had been confident of setting a new mark after running 8:30.31 in Boston last week, despite a severe cold.

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