As the Olympic flame lit the Athens sky last night, the Greek sprinter Kostas Kenteris was in the hospital bed he was admitted to in the early hours of yesterday morning. Mystery surrounded the motorcycle crash which was said to have put him there and his failure to take a drug test, which will be the subject of an International Olympic Committee disciplinary hearing on Monday.

Whatever the decision that panel comes to, the shadow cast over the 28th Olympiad by Kenteris and his training partner, Ekaterini Thanou, is vast.

Kenteris, the reigning Olympic 200 metres champion, and Thanou, the women's 100m silver medallist from the 2000 Olympics, are due to be released from hospital tomorrow, but they will emerge to find their reputations, not to mention their participation in the games, on the line.

After a day of frantic developments in the Greek capital, it emerged that an IOC anti-doping team had tried to test Kenteris and Thanou in Chicago earlier this week, but they were not at the address they had given to officials.

If found guilty of the IOC's charge of twice "refusing or failing without justification to provide a sample" they face immediate expulsion from the games and a possible two-year ban from the sport.

Before addressing the IOC, however, they will face questions from a disillusioned Greek public over the motorcycle crash that followed their failure to submit to a drug test at the Olympic village.

Shortly after the sprinters arrived in the village on Thursday they were informed that they were required to take a random drug test. Subsequently, testers could not find them in their rooms. The Greek Olympic team suggested at first that the sprinters had gone home to pick up some belongings and later that they had been needed along the route of the Olympic torch relay.

The first precise news of their whereabouts came in the early hours of yesterday when it was announced they had been admitted to hospital after a road accident.

Kenteris and Thanou, who both emerged from obscurity to grab medals in Sydney, have long been suspected of avoiding drug testing, and last night few in Athens seemed willing to accept their version of events at face value.

According to Christos Tsekos, the sprinters' controversial coach who has been implicated in the Balco drug scandal sweeping US athletics, Kenteris and Thanou had been with him at his home in Athens when the drug testers called at the athletes' village.

"They had their cell phones turned off and didn't know they were being sought," Tsekos said yesterday. "They were with me, they took the bike to get there [to the village] quickly and as you can see, frustration is the worst thing."

Tsekos said Kenteris lost control of the motorbike after slipping on a patch of oil near his house. They arrived at the KAT trauma hospital 15 miles away, rather than the much closer Voula hospital in Glyfada, at around 12.15 a.m., but how they got there remains unclear.

There were no records of any police emergency calls being logged in Glyfada on Thursday night, and the ambulance service confirmed it had not answered a call from Kenteris or Thanou.

Greek media last night reported that a passing motorist had driven the pair to the hospital but no one came forward to prove that theory. It was unclear whether Tsekos had taken them to the hospital, and the whereabouts of the motorcycle is unknown.

There was also confusion about the extent of their injuries. A friend of Tsekis's said they had suffered only light injuries and had "no problem".

Later however, following a visit to the hospital by Patrick Schamasch, the IOC's medical director, and Nikitas Kaklamanis, the Greek health minister, the hospital said the pair would be detained for 48 hours.

The hospital said Kenteris had suffered "cranial trauma", whiplash and wounds to his lower leg, and that Thanou sustained abdominal bruises, injuries to her right hip and a muscular injury to her right upper leg.

The injury inflicted on Greek pride may be more serious, and the mood on the streets last night indicated public opinion was turning against athletes who were expected to be among the stars of the games.

Not even the greatest of ancient tragedians could have written the script, most commentators agreed. Its timing, protagonists and whirlwind pace had made "Greece freeze", the mass-selling daily Eleftheros Typos declared.

The Athens games had suddenly suffered "the biggest wound imaginable" said the paper.

Guardian Service

Monday: International Olympic Committee testers turn up to test Kostas Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou in Chicago and discover they are not at the address they had claimed to be. Wednesday: Kenteris and Thanou arrive in Athens, presumably from Chicago where they claim to have been training. Strangely, the head of the Greek athletics association, Vasilis Sevastis, will say on Thursday night that "Kenteris was in Germany until yesterday".

Thursday: 3.20 p.m. - Kenteris arrives at the Olympic village the day before the opening ceremony. He is one of the last to arrive.

6.15 p.m. - An IOC drug-testing team go to the rooms they believe Kenteris and Thanou are occupying, but find them empty. The IOC team notify officials of the athletes' absence and the Greek team management is contacted.

9 p.m. - Rumours that Kenteris has been involved in a testing incident begin to circulate in Athens. Radio and television stations report that he may have missed a test. The Greek sports minister Yiorgos Orfanos, below, says he is unaware of any problem involving Kenteris and Thanou. IOC officials refuse to comment publicly, but privately express little sympathy for the reigning Olympic 200m champion.

10.15 p.m. - Rumours as to the cause of the no-show circulate among journalists inside the Hilton hotel, the IOC's HQ in Athens and venue for an emergency meeting between IOC officials, including the president Jacques Rogge, and the Hellenic Olympic Committee. Rogge, arriving back from the Olympic torch-lighting ceremony at the Acropolis, declines to comment. Some sources indicate Kenteris was not in the village because he was taking part in the ceremony, but there was no sign of him at the Acropolis.

10.45 p.m. - The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) confirms the worst fears of the games organisers in a statement. It claims Kenteris and Thanou left the village to go home to collect personal belongings and requested more time to provide samples.

11.50 p.m. - After the crisis meeting at the Hilton, the IOC releases a statement confirming that Kenteris and Thanou have a case to answer and that it is convening a disciplinary hearing for Friday morning. They are charged with being unavailable for testing and failing, "without compelling justification, to submit to testing".

12.15 a.m. - Kenteris and Thanou are involved in a motorcycle crash. TV reports later say they were on the balcony at Tzekos' house when he told them to return to the Olympic village as soon as possible. They used a motorbike, with Thanou riding pillion. It slid on a patch of oil outside the house and the sprinters were injured.

Friday: 2.15 a.m. - The Greek Olympic official George Gakis announces that the pair have been taken to hospital. Medical sources say Kenteris sustained only "a slight head injury, a sprain to the vertebra at the back of his neck, a knee sprain and scratches to his right leg" and Thanou only "slight abdominal injuries, a sprain to the right leg".

9.30 a.m. - It is announced that the IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch visited the hospital to check on the sprinters' condition and served them with notice to attend a disciplinary hearing that day. He judged them fit to attend.

10 a.m. - A statement from the hospital reveals Kenteris has cranial trauma, whiplash and open wounds to the leg and Thanou has sustained a right hip and muscular injury.

11.10 a.m. - Rogge hosts a welcome-to-the-games press conference in the main press centre which is initially dominated by questions about Kenteris and Thanou. Rogge says the IOC is still awaiting the results of the disciplinary committee hearing.

12 p.m. - Neither Kenteris nor Thanou shows for the IOC disciplinary hearing. A Greece official appears on their behalf and requests a 48-hour postponement because of their injuries.

2 p.m. - The hospital administrator Christos Artinopoulos announces that the sprinters will stay as in-patients until Sunday.

2.30 p.m. - The IOC announces that disciplinary hearings will be held on Monday.

5 p.m. - The HOC says it will hold an emergency meetingto discuss the situation. There are suggestions the sprinters will withdraw from the games.

(All times are local) ...