Three Brazilian athletes banned for two years

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Three Brazilian athletes have been suspended for two years after testing positive for a banned substance, the Brazilian Athletics Confederation (CBAt) said on Thursday.

Sprinters Bruno Tenorio and Jorge Celio Sena and heptathlete Lucimara Silvestre, who tested positive for Recombinant EPO, waived their right to have their B samples examined to avoid a possible more stringent punishment, a CBAt statement on their website (www.cbat.org.br) said.

The suspension runs until June 2011.

They were among five Brazilian athletes who tested positive for the same substance at Presidente Prudente in Brazil in June and had been training in Germany ahead of the world championships in Berlin.

All five, who include sprinters Josiane Tito and Luciana Franca, had initially asked for their B samples to be tested.

Their coaches at the club Rede Atletismo, Jayme Netto and Inaldo Sena, who admitted knowledge of the athletes' use of the substance, were also suspended on Wednesday.

CBAt said it believed there was more to be revealed and would investigate the incident further.

"Reading the reports of the athletes and trainers there are strong indications of the participation of at least one person who guided them, in a perverse and deliberate way, to use the banned substances," it said in an earlier statement.

Tenorio was in the Brazil team that finished fourth in the men's 4x100 metres relay at the Beijing Olympics last year while Tito and Silvestre also competed at the Games.