Lombard must repay less than €3,000

SHAMED former Olympic hopeful Cathal Lombard can only be made pay back a fraction of the State sports grants he received before he was banned for a doping offence.

The Irish Sports Council is to write to the 28-year-old runner seeking the return of less than €3,000 of approximate €20,000 paid to him over the past two years under the "International Carding Scheme", the council's financial support programme for elite athletes.

Scheme regulations state that only money paid after the commission of the offence can be recouped. Lombard tested positive for the banned performance enhancing substance, EPO, following a test in July by which time he had already received three quarterly instalments of his €11,500 annual grant for 2004.