Athletics' ruling body, the IAAF, today announced an agreement with Greek sprint stars Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou to end a long running legal battle over their suspension for evading a doping test at the 2004 Olympic Games.

The IAAF said in a statement on its website that the Greek athletes had "accepted anti-doping rule violations of three missed tests between 27 July and 12 August 2004... and a failure to provide a urine and a blood sample on 12 August 2004."

"In consequence, the proceedings are now at an end."

Kenteris and Thanou will be allowed to compete again after December 22, 2006, following a two-year suspension, provided they comply with anti-doping tests required before they are reinstated, it added.

Kenteris, 200m gold medal winner in the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and Thanou, 100m silver medallist in Sydney, were kicked out of the Athens Games after failing to turn up for drugs tests.

They had protested their innocence, claiming they had a motorcycle accident when rushing back to the Olympic village for a test.

The duo were provisionally banned by the Monaco-based IAAF, in December 2004 but they were cleared by an independent Greek athletics tribunal.

The IAAF then appealed to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), which first examined the case last October. The agreement was announced on the first day of a resumed panel hearing at the CAS in Lausanne.

"We learned to our great surprise this morning that the two parties have come to an agreement. The IAAF announced the withdrawal of its appeal," CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb told AFP.

"For us the story is over," he added.

Kenteris and Thanou's legal team had fought tooth and nail over the past two years to clear the athletes in the wake of one of the most rocambolesque scandals to hit the Olympics.

After the battle in Greece, a first CAS session in October 2005 to examine the IAAF's appeal was unable to finish examining all the evidence.

The case was further delayed earlier this year after the Greek legal team challenged the impartiality of one of the CAS judges, and he decided to stand down.

AFP