Silver Medallist Rebellin Failed Beijing Test

`The president (of CONI`s anti-doping tribunal) has suspended Rebellin from all competitive activity,` a CONI statement said.

Cycling road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin is one of six new athletes to fail drugs tests from the Beijing Games, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) said on Wednesday.

The 37-year-old is the latest in a string of Italian cyclists to test positive in recent years and is so far the most high profile name from last August's Olympics to be caught up in a doping saga.

"The president (of CONI's anti-doping tribunal) has suspended Rebellin from all competitive activity," a CONI statement said.

His Diquigiovanni team have also suspended him temporarily.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday it had discovered seven more positive drugs results from re-testing samples taken at the Games, stemming from six athletes.

All of them tested positive for CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator), the new generation of banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO).

An IOC official said the positive tests were all A samples.

CONI said late on Tuesday that an Italian athlete was involved and confirmed it was Rebellin on Wednesday. The identities, nationalities and sports of the five other athletes have not been released by the IOC.

'INCREDIBLE DEVELOPMENT'

CONI's anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri, who gave two-year bans to Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli for testing positive for CERA at last year's Tour de France, has summoned Rebellin to a hearing on May 4.

Rebellin's wife and agent Selina Martinello said her husband, who won Belgium's Fleche Wallone classic for the third time earlier this month, was innocent.

"Davide has not done anything. Now we must stay calm in the light of this incredible development," she told Gazzetta dello Sport's website (www.gazzetta.it)

"We have sent off the request for the analysis of a B sample. We will go on until the end."

Rebellin finished behind Spain's Samuel Sanchez in Beijing and in front of bronze medallist Fabian Cancellara and Russia's Alexander Kolobnev in fourth.

The latest round of Beijing sample re-testing, which began in January, focused primarily on endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics, the IOC said.

The IOC stores samples for eight years to allow re-testing once new methods of detecting banned substances are developed.