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Athletics

Anti-doping chief calls for Gatlin life ban

31/07/2006

Justin Gatlin needs to be given a lifetime ban from athletics after failing a drugs test for the second time in his career, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has said.

Gatlin, the World and Olympic 100m champion and joint world record holder, had his B sample test positive for testosterone, backing up the results of a preliminary test taken in April.

The 24-year-old American sprinter also tested positive for an amphetamine in 2001 and Dick Pound, Wada chairman, has now called for serious action to be taken.

Speaking to Radio Five Live, Pound confirmed: "The B sample is positive, they've gone through that whole exercise.

"What remains now is for the appropriate penalty to be handed out by the US Anti-Doping Agency and that will be reviewed by the IAAF, and by Wada if we're not satisfied that the right result has been achieved."

Trevor Graham, Gatlin's coach, has insisted the American is innocent and even suggested that he was set up, although the athlete's lawyer Cameron Myler has distanced from these comments.

"Gatlin needs to be banned for up to life," Pound added. "There may be some extenuating circumstances but if he just continues some sort of bland denial that will not help him when it comes to sentencing.

"If he can find somebody who did in fact spike it that's for them to prove, but short of something like that he faces a very serious problem."

The shock results of Gatlin's test came just days after fellow American athlete Floyd Landis, the winner of this year's Tour de France, also tested positive for testosterone.

Landis is expected to have the results of his B test revealed today.

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