Athens - Greek athletes have been ordered not to dedicate Olympic medals to disgraced sprinters Kostadinos Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou, who withdrew from the team after a dope-test scandal.
A number of medal-winning Greek athletes have paid tribute to Kenteris and Thanou after competing, prompting criticism from the country's Olympic chief Yiannis Papadoyiannakis.
"I don't think that such expressions are appropriate at this moment. After the end of the Games, they can do or say what they want," Papadoyiannakis told private radio station Flash.
Sydney Olympics 200m champion Kenteris and Thanou withdrew from the Olympics last week after facing an International Olympic Committee (IOC) probe into their failure to attend a drugs test on the eve of the games.
They faced being thrown out of the games for the offence.
But Greek sprinter Fani Halkia, who runs for a medal in the women's 400-metre hurdles final on Wednesday, is the latest athlete to declare her support for the shamed duo.
"In the final I want to run for myself, my coach and the two missing friends, Kenteris and Thanou," she said.
Despite the rank-and-file support from team-mates the plight of Kenteris and Thanou has failed to move the Greek public, the majority of whom believe the sprinters have used performance enhancing-drugs.
The ongoing probe into the sprinters' coach - Christos Tzekos - meanwhile continues to amass evidence that the guru was involved in doping.
Hundreds of boxes of anabolic steroids were seized in Tzekos' offices earlier this week.
Greek newspapers meanwhile reported a link between Tzekos and the country's weightlifting coach Christos Iakovou.
Iakovou's role has come under scrutiny after Greek weightlifter and Olympic bronze medallist Leonidas Sampanis tested positive for testosterone.
Media reported on Wednesday that the two men had sought to set up a sports management company in December 2002 but were thwarted by Greek sporting federations.
