OLYMPIC UPDATE / 2 DAYS TO THE GAMES

Italy is in danger of being banned from international athletics if it fails to throw high jumper Antonella Bevilacqua off its Olympic team after a positive drug test, sources said.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) is annoyed that Italian chiefs have not suspended Bevilacqua for three months after she tested positive for the banned stimulant ephedrine twice in May.

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Iran has dropped two members of its judo team and a weightlifter from its squad for the Olympics, saying they had tested positive for illegal substances, a newspaper said. The daily Abrar said judokas Abbas Abdi and Mohammad Reza Tolouei and weightlifter Shaheen Nassirnia were dropped from the Iranian squad after they tested positive for unspecified banned substances.

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The British Athletics Federation will sue the News of the World newspaper unless it retracts claims that 80% of British track and field athletes are on drugs, the federation’s executive chairman Peter Radford said.