Ramzi 'B' sample positive

Olympics 1,500m gold medal winner Rashid Ramzi's positive test for the new blood-boosting drug CERA has been confirmed.

According to PA Sport, the analysis of the 'B' sample proved positve.

Four other athletes who also tested positive for CERA at last summer's Beijing Games have also been confirmed by the second tests, according to Olympics sources. All five now face bans and being stripped of any medals.

However a sixth athlete, weightlifter Yudelquis Contreras from the Dominican Republic, has been cleared after her 'B' sample came back negative.

Ramzi, who was born in Morocco but became a citizen of Bahrain in 2002, had been targeted by anti-doping chiefs for some time after suspicions were raised about his record. If, as now seems certain, he is stripped of gold, the medal will pass to Kenya's Asbel Kiprop.

The other four positive tests included two other track athletes - Greece's Athanasia Tsoumeleka, who won the 20km walk at the Athens Olympics but finished ninth in Beijing, and Croatian 800m runner Vanja Perisic.

The other two were cyclists - Italy's Davide Rebellin, who took the silver medal in the Beijing road race, and Germany's Stefan Schumacher. Schumacher is already serving a ban after testing positive for CERA during last summer's Tour de France.

The International Olympic Committee re-analysed 948 samples from 948 athletes in Beijing after new tests for CERA became available in January.