Rebellin loses drug case appeal

Rebellin won his silver medal on his 37th birthday

Italy's Davide Rebellin has lost his appeal against being stripped of the silver medal he won in the road race at Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The 39-year-old cyclist appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the International Olympic Committee disqualified him in November 2009.

He tested positive for blood-boosting agent Cera in April 2009 when the IOC submitted samples for a new test.

But Cas rejected his allegations that the testing had been flawed.

Rebellin was one of five athletes to test positive in April last year for Cera, an advanced version of the blood-boosting drug EPO.

Samples taken at the Beijing Games were submitted to a new test at a laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry in France.

Rebellin alleged mistakes were made in the analysis procedure and also challenged the validity of the test itself.

The presence of Cera has been validly detected in the blood samples of the athlete CAS judgement

In its judgement, the three-man Cas panel rejected his submissions, however.

The court's statement read: "The Cas panel has rejected all the arguments put forward by the athlete and has confirmed that the procedures of the chain of custody have been complied with and that there was no departure from the international standards for laboratories which could have reasonably caused an abnormal analysis result.

"Furthermore, the Cas panel has confirmed that the presence of Cera has been validly detected in the blood samples of the athlete and that the laboratory... applied a method of detection which already existed and was already validated."

The decision leaves Rebellin facing suspension by the International Cycling Union.

With his disqualification confirmed, the IOC has said it will reallocate the silver medal to Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, who finished third in Beijing.

Fourth-place finisher Alexander Kolobnev of Russia will move up to the bronze medal poisition.

Italy's Olympic committee has also demanded that Rebellin repay his 75,000 euro (£62,700) silver medal bonus.

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