Equestrian: Waterford Crystal B-test Proves Positive

The Irish showjumper Cian O'Connor faces losing his Olympic gold medal after a B-tested blood sample confirmed traces of banned substances in the horse he rode to victory in Athens.

O'Connor, who partnered Waterford Crystal to Ireland's only medal at the games, admitted last night the horse's second sample had turned up "minute traces" of drugs at a laboratory in New York.

The finding follows a first positive test announced last month by the International Equestrian Federation. Under the FEI rules he could now be stripped of the medal.

O'Connor, however, claims the results vindicate his claim that the drugs were given to the horse a month before the Olympics and did not boost his performance.

O'Connor said the laboratory informed him the horse's blood sample tested positive for traces of two human anti-psychotic drugs not normally administered to horses.

"We're talking about a fraction of a millionth of a gram in each case," he said. He felt the finding supported his claims that he "in no way tried to affect the results of the Olympic Games with drugs".

James Sheeran, the vet who has admitted administering the drugs, supported him. He said Waterford Crystal suffered a fetlock injury a month before the Olympics and was confined in a hydrotherapy unit.

Both O'Connor and Sheeran have claimed they had thought the sedatives, fluphenazine and guanabenz, drugs which are used to treat schizophrenia and high blood pressure in humans, would work their way out of the horse's system within two weeks.

The international federation had originally sent Waterford Crystal's B urine sample to a laboratory in Newmarket for testing last month. But the specimen was stolen on October 21 by someone misrepresenting himself to a courier company at the gate of the lab.

However, a blood sample had also been taken from the horse and that was sent separately to the laboratory in New York last week.

The day after the FEI announced the theft, burglars ransacked the headquarters of the Irish Equestrian Federation and stole documents on O'Connor.

O'Connor had denied any involvement in either theft and blamed enemies within Ireland's equestrian establishment of plotting against him.

His only hope of keeping the medal appears to be to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne over what he sees as irregularities in the case. If that fails, then the gold medal will go to Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa.

"For the moment I can't really make a statement because I have not been informed officially," Pessoa said. "I would like to wait until I have heard officially from the FEI."