Usuario:Cobalttempest/Sandbox/KKenteris

{{MedalTableTop}} {{MedalOlympic}} {{MedalSport|Men's [[Athletics (track and field)|athletics]]}} {{MedalGold|[[2000 Summer Olympics|2000 Sydney]]|[[Athletics at the 2000 Summer Olympics|200 metres]]}} {{MedalWorldChampionships}} {{MedalGold|[[2001 World Championships in Athletics|2001 Edmonton]]|200 metres}} {{MedalEuropeanChampionships}} {{MedalGold|[[2002 European Championships in Athletics|2002 Munich]]|200 metres}} {{MedalBottom}}

Konstantinos Kenteris, also spelt as Konstadinos Kederis (in Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Κεντέρης; born July 11, 1973) is a Greek athlete. (In modern Greek, "ντ" is pronounced like the English "d".)

Born in Mytilene, Kenteris, a student of physical education, started practising athletics at age 10, and started running seriously about ten years later, when he moved to Thessaloniki. Kenteris specialised in the 200 m and 400 m races.

It was not until 1999 that Kenteris took part in his first major international tournaments; he was eliminated in the heats of both the indoor and outdoor World Championships. Because of this, few people had heard of Kenteris when he surprised by qualifying for the 200 m final at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Although defending Olympic champion Michael Johnson and reigning World Champion Maurice Greene didn't compete, nobody had included Kenteris in his list of medal favourites. But Kenteris raced to the gold medal, denying Britain's Darren Campbell and Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago.

He also won the 200 m title at the 2001 World Championships, after a season where he mostly stayed out of international competition. The following year, Kenteris completed his trilogy by also winning the European title in Munich in 19.85, his personal best.

For the 2004 Summer Olympics, Kenteris was one of the hopes of the home crowd for winning a gold medal in athletics, and favourite to light the Olympic flame. However, on the day prior to the Games, Kenteris and his training partner Ekaterini Thanou failed to attend a drug test, claiming to have been injured in a motorcycle accident. Despite no visible signs of injury, they were put on intravenous drip. In the ensuing doping scandal, Kenteris and Thanou announced their withdrawal from the Games on August 18, after a hearing before the Disciplinary Commission of the IOC. Soon thereafter, an official Greek investigation into their alleged accident, proved that it had been staged. Their coach Christos Tsekos was also suspended and was later caught with large amounts of steroids and other drugs in his possession.

The missed test in Athens was the duo's third violation of the summer and they were consequently suspended by the IAAF on 22 December 2004. After a long legal battle, on June 26 2006 before the Court of Arbitration for Sport the Greek athletes, accepted anti-doping rule violations of 3 missed tests between 27 July and 12 August 2004 (in breach of Rule 32.2(d)) and a failure to provide a urine and a blood sample on 12 August 2004 (in breach of Rule 32.2(c)). They are re-eligible to compete since 22 December 2006.

Personal bests

Date	Event	Venue	Time
June 23, 2001	100 m	Bremen, Germany	10.15
August 9, 2002	200 m	Munich, Germany	19.85
July 27, 1998	400 m	Thessaloniki, Greece	45.60

Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result	Event
1992	IAAF World Junior Championships	Seoul, Corea	6th	200 m
2000	2000 Olympic Games	Sydney, Australia	1st	200 m
2001	IAAF World Championships	Edmonton, Alberta	1st	200 m
2002	European Championships	Munich, Germany	1st	200 m
2003	SPAR European Cup	Florence, Italia	1st	200 m
2004	Greece National Championships	Greece	1st	100 m

External links

• Official Website
• IOC decision regarding the cases of Konstantinos Kenteris and Ekatarina Thanou Press release, August 18, 2004