tournament.

Greece is at the 13th place with 6 gold medals, the number of gold medals also won by Korea so far.

The 12th medal came yesterday and was won by Fani Chalkia, who got the gold medal in the Women's 400 m hurdles (52.82). "We, the Greeks, are born to be the first", stated the Greek athlete right after her triumph.

Earlier, the 11th medal, a bronze, was won by Artiom Kiouregian in the Men's Greco-Roman (55 kg), while the 12th medal a silver, came from Nikos Kaklamanakis in sailing in the Mistral class.

The United States has the most medals, a total of 76, (25 gold, 29 silver and 22 bronze) followed by China with a total of 52 medals (24 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze), then come Australia, Japan and Russia.

The Greek team was proved to be one of the strongest in the tournament and it was only fair to be in the final. Both the athletes and their coach Koulis Iosifidis express optimism that they will be able to win the gold.

In Tuesday's semifinal, when the Greek team faced Australia, the gold winner in the Sydney Olympics, dominated with a score 6-2.

Chalkia denied information according to which, her coach Giorgos Panagiotopoulos is associated with Christos Tzekos and attributed her incredible personal improvement recorded during the past year to hard training.

The newspaper Daily Telegraph expresses the hope that the Greeks will continue to celebrate the victory won by Fani Chalkia after the suspicions that fell on Kenteris and Thanou, while The Guardian mentions that Panagiotopoulos follows the same tactic wi th Tzekos and participates in very few sports competitions.

The IAAF is expected to decide if it will launch an indictment procedure against the two Greek track and field champions and their coach Christos Tzekos but will not reach a decision on penalties.

For the record, Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou maintained in the IOC Disciplinary Commission hearing that they have never used banned substances.

Meanwhile, Meletis Zografos, who appeared in a television channel with his face covered and maintained that he was the eyewitness in the motorcycle accident in which Kenteris and Thanou were involved, was arrested yesterday. Zografos had been sentenced i n absentia to 14 months in prison after found guilty of theft and usurpation of authority.

According to other information, the Cypriot Sports Organization had rejected a proposal made by Christos Tzekos to train the Cypriot athletes in view of the Olympic Games in Athens for the sum of 1.5 million euros.

The judicial inquiry on the Kenteris-Thanou case is underway, while the responsible authorities continue to collect evidence.

According to the IAAF decision, beginning on August 30 the two Greek champions and their coach Christos Tzekos can compete again until a final decision is reached.

Based on the IAAF rationale, an order to launch an investigation was given today in which the evidence collected by the IOC and the Greek judicial authorities will be taken under consideration. A three-member IAAF committee will assess the evidence and t hen forward it to SEGAS, the Hellenic Amateur Athletic Association.

SEGAS will call the two champions and their coach to a hearing and then present the findings to the IAAF. The final decision on Kenteris and Thanou is expected around Christmas.

Greek deputy government spokesman Vaggelis Antonaros made the statement above responding to the question if the protest march scheduled to take place in view of US Secretary of State Colin Powell visit to Athens could be banned.

Yiannis Zavos, 42, spotted the medal at the back seat of his cab and the next morning took it to the Attiki Taxi Drivers Union.

"The truth is that I tried it on at home. I became an Olympic medallist for a while. I couldn't resist. The thing is that I gave the chance to my wife to start making comments. I think that she was making fun of me", said Mr. Zavos.

But was it easy for him to give it back? Mr. Zavos said: "It was out of the question for me to keep it. I said to myself that I had to give it back first thing the next morning. This was not my medal. Somebody had worked very hard to win it and had to ta ke it back."

Of the stocks trading today, 146 had gains and 118 had losses, while the value of 107 stocks remained unchanged.

They also discussed the Olympic Games and Mr. Karamanlis invited Mr. Papadopoulos to watch together the Women's Water Polo final to take place this afternoon in which Greece will face Italy for the gold.

In the meeting were also present Greek Foreign Minister Petros Moliviatis and Cyprus' ambassador to Athens Leonidas Pantelidis.

In spite of the bitterness of the defeat the Greek "mermaids" wrote history by winning the first Olympic medal for Greece in a team sport.

The United States team won the bronze medal after defeating Australia 6-5.