The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stripped Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi of his gold medal after the athlete tested positive for the blood booster Cera.

The IOC also sanctioned four other athletes for doping offences at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but Ramzi was the only gold medallist among them. All five have been permanently barred from the Olympics and will have to return any medals won in Beijing. Ramzi, who was born in Morocco but runs for Bahrain, won the 1500 meters. He was Bahrain's first Olympic champion.
 

The other positive athletes are German cyclist Stefan Schumacher, Greece's walking champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka, Croatian 800 metres runner Vanja Perisic and Italian cyling roadracer Davide Rebellin. The IOC has already disqualified nine other athletes for doping offences at the Beijing games.
 

Cera is a banned blood booster similar to Epo, which is also banned. Both drugs are popular with endurance athletes as they boost the production of red blood cells and improve performance. Cera, a third-generation erythropoietin enhancer, lasts longer than Epo and was released in early 2008. Initially it was harder to detect as a reliable test had not been developed and it was undetectable using the existing Epo test.