Hungary's Zoltan Kovago banned 2 years, out of Olympics

Discus thrower Zoltan Kovago was given a two-year ban for a doping offense and will miss the London Olympics, the Hungarian team said Thursday.

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Kovago won silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics and was considered a medal contender at the London Games as well.

The Hungarian Olympic Committee said in a statement Thursday that the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld an appeal filed by athletics' governing body, the IAAF.

The committee said Kovago refused to provide a sample to doping officials last year. The IAAF filed an appeal after Hungarian doping officials had initially cleared Kovago.

Kovago's ban comes shortly after another Hungarian discus thrower, Robert Fazekas, was removed from the Olympic team after testing positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.

Fazekas initially won the Olympic title in Athens but was disqualified for a doping offense. Kovago had finished third but was upgraded to the silver-medal position in the standings.

The 2004 Olympics gold went to Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania.