Another one bites the dust

Taiwanese weightlifter Chen Po-pu has been expelled from the Sydney Olympics after testing positive for steroids, a team spokesman said on Wednesday.

He is the first athlete to be sent home from the Games for a drugs offence.

Lin Yung-fu, a spokesman for the Taiwan Olympic Committee, said Chen tested positive for the steroid methandienone in a pre-Games test in Taiwan in August.

He said the team was told of the result on Tuesday night.

Chen, who took silver and bronze medals at world junior competitions in 1997 and 1998, had been due to compete in the 62 kg category.

He has been training with the rest of the Taiwanese team on the outskirts of Sydney this week.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) last month banned two Taiwanese, including three-times world champion Chen Jui-lien, from competing at Sydney due to doping offences.

Taiwan had wanted to send the two athletes to the Games even though they had tested positive for steroids but the IWF, under pressure from the International Olympic Committee, intervened.