Australian former swimming Olympian Ian Thorpe decided to drop his case against one of the French defendants in a defamation suit over doping claims.

Thorpe is suing the daily sports newspaper L' Equipe, its publisher, and journalist Damien Ressiot, over an article published in March last year in the New South Wales Supreme Court, seeking compensation for the damage of his reputation.

The paper claimed Thorpe gave a urine sample in May 2006 which showed abnormal levels of testosterone and a luteinising hormone -- both banned substances for competitive swimmers.

However, Thorpe's solicitor Tony O'Reilly on Monday withdrew the case against Hachette Filipacchi Media, one of the five parties named in Thorpe's claim. Hachette is the world's largest magazine publisher and is one of three media groups with a stake in the L'Equipe masthead.

O'Reilly told Registrar Jennifer Atkinson that Hachette had contacted him through a Sydney solicitor, and "they have satisfied us that they are a shareholder rather than a principal publisher (of L'Equipe)," according to a report by Australian Associated Press.

O'Reilly foreshadowed that he would make an application for the case to be run without any of the defendants, who had so far failed to appear or respond.

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2008)