Belarus hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan to miss London Olympics

Belarus hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan will miss the London Olympics, the country's sports ministry said on Friday, after a request from athletics' world governing body, AFP reported.

"Tsikhan will not compete at London," ministry spokesman Vladimir Nesterovich told reporters. "Belarus athletics federation received a letter from the world athletics ruling body IAAF with a demand to sideline Tsikhan.

"The IAAF letter said that new methods of testing discovered the presence of banned medications in the samples, which Tsikhan gave at the Athens Games (in 2004) and 2005 World Championships.

"We decided to withdraw Tsikhan from the competitions to avoid any possibility of sanctions against the entire Belarus athletics squad at the Olympics."