Greek high jumper Chondrokoukis fails drugs test

Greek world indoor high jump champion Dimitris Chondrokoukis has failed a drugs test and is out of the Olympics, his coach and father Kyriakos Chondrokoukis said Thursday. Chondrokoukis said he was informed earlier Thursday by the Greek athletic federation (SEGAS) his son had tested positive for stanozolol, the banned steroid infamously used by disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson in 1988. "My son will not be participating in the Olympics leaving an unfulfilled dream," he said, adding that a second test has been requested. He also announced that he has informed SEGAS of his resignation after 14 years as coach. Dimitris Chondrokoukis, 24, becomes the second Greek athlete to be dropped from the Olympics from the original 105 athletes announced earlier this month. On Wednesday triple jumper Voula Papachristou, 23, was expelled from the squad for writing a racist remark on Twitter. Dimitris Chondrokoukis, who won the gold medal at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul with a personal best of 2.33 meters, had gone through a surprise anti-doping test 10 days ago, his father said. "Although we believe the story is unrealistic, we have no intention to challenge the result of this test. Instead we have been instructed to consider the second sample, and then to send both samples to another accredited laboratory," Kyriakos Chondrokoukis said in the statement. The coach said the news has "shocked my family and I urge the news media and the public not to condemn at the outset Dimitris and to respect our effort to find the answers which are not always obvious."