The Olympic 1,500 metres champion Rashid Ramzi has become the highest profile track athlete to fail a dope test at a Games since Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive in Seoul in 1988.
Ramzi won the 1,500 metres track final in which New Zealand's Nick Willis won the bronze, raising the possibility that Willis could be promoted to the silver medal, if Ramzi's B sample also tests positive.
Ramzi, Bahrain's first Olympic champion, and two road cyclists have been named among six athletes exposed by the IOC's restrospective testing of Olympic samples from last year for the new blood-boosting drug CERA.
The cyclists are Italy's Davide Rebellin, the Beijing road race silver medallist, and the German Tour de France rider Stefan Schumacher, who was suspended in March by the International Cycling Union for two years from all cycling after failing a drugs test for CERA during last year's Tour de France.
