Tustain takes bronze

Nicola Tustain added a fourth equestrian medal to Britain's collection of two golds and a bronze when she rode Prinz Heinrich to finish joint third in yesterday's Grade II section of the individual dressage at the Paralympic Games in Athens.

A close battle had been predicted between Joop Stokkel, the gold medal winner four years ago in Sydney, and Tustain. In the end, they took silver and bronze, with the 52-year-old Swede Irene Slaettengren beating them to the gold.

The cyclists Ian Sharpe and Paul Hunter put Britain on the medal trail with a B1-3 1km time trial bronze. The duo, who also won a bronze in the individual pursuit open, finished behind the Australian and French pairs in a time of 1min 5.53sec.

Two athletes from Azerbaijan have been banned for life after failing drugs tests. The powerlifters Sara Abbasova and Gunduz Ismayilov have become the first athletes to be thrown out after testing positive respectively for nandrolone and stanozolol. Both had already served two-year drug bans.