BERNE (Reuters) – Olympic 1500 metres champion Rashid Ramzi appeared before an International Olympic Committee (IOC) disciplinary commission yesterday to give his version of events surrounding a positive doping test after the Beijing Games.

The Bahraini was one of six competitors who officials said in April had tested positive for the blood booster CERA following last year’s Games.

The IOC said in a statement that the commission also discussed the cases of cyclists Davide Rebellin of Italy and Stefan Schumacher of Germany, and athletes Athanasia Tsoumeleka of Greece and Vanja Parisic of Croatia during yesterday’s hearing.

Rebellin won silver in the individual road race in Beijing while Tsoumeleka won gold in the 20-km walk at the Athens Games and was ninth in the same event in Beijing.

“The IOC Disciplinary Commission gave the athletes and their representatives the opportunity to be heard,” said the IOC.

“The decision by the IOC will be taken in due course after deliberation.”

An IOC official said that the sixth competitor, Dominican Republic weightlifter Yudelquis Maridalin Contreras, had been cleared by her country’s Olympic Committee in June after her B sample was negative.

A test was only recently developed for CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator), the new generation of the banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO).

The IOC conducted the largest ever doping operation with some 5 000 blood and urine tests during the Games.

The IOC said it was storing samples collected during the Olympic Games for eight years so that they could be analysed retroactively.