Olympic cycling time-trial champion Tyler Hamilton is to keep his gold medal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed an appeal filed by Russian silver medallist Viatcheslav Ekimov.

American Hamilton won the time-trial event in Athens but failed a blood-doping test, only for his B sample to be accidentally destroyed meaning the failed test could not be corroborated.

That led to Ekimov and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) appealing to the International Olympic Committee, who in September 2004 deemed Hamilton's test non-conclusive and confirmed his victory.

Ekimov and the ROC took the case to CAS a month later but today a three-man panel deemed that according to CAS rules they had no standing to lodge an appeal.

"An appeal can be filed to CAS only by the athlete who is the subject of the decision being appealed from, by the IOC, by the relevant International Federation or anti-doping organisation and by WADA," said a statement from CAS.

"As a consequence, Tyler Hamilton can retain the gold medal he won at the time-trial event in Athens and the ranking of this race is definitively confirmed."

Australian cyclist Michael Rogers, who was fourth in Athens, would have been awarded the bronze medal had the appeal to CAS been successful.

The case was delayed several months pending another Hamilton case at CAS where the former Phonak rider was appealing a two-year ban for the same blood-doping offence at the 2004 Tour of Spain, just a month after his Olympic victory.

The American had appealed that the testing procedure was unreliable but CAS rejected that and upheld Hamilton's suspension by the International Cycling Union (UCI), which ends on September 22.

AFP