Gatlin gets eight-year ban

[Mac]

Track and field right now is hot with athletes getting caught for drug offense. J. Gatlin down and next will be Marion Jones. Plus there is big rumors about at least one more US athlete positive from the past US track and field championship.

Very depressing for track overall. Testing techniques are catching up with the cheaters.

Taken from www.jamaicaobserver.com

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Gatlin gets eight-year ban</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline>... stripped of 9.77sec 100-metre world record</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>AFP
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=358 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>GATLIN... decided to accept accuracy of lab results</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>WASHINGTON (AFP) - Olympic and World champion sprinter Justin Gatlin has accepted an eight-year ban for a second doping offence, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced yesterday.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The American joint world record-holder over 100 metres had been facing a lifetime ban from the sport after testing positive for a banned anabolic drug, possibly testosterone, at a Kansas City meeting on April 22.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But USADA said that Gatlin had decided to accept the accuracy of the laboratory results and that it constituted a doping violation.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Along with the ban, Gatlin will lose the world record mark of 9.77 seconds he set in Doha on May 12 - which he shared with Jamaican Asafa Powell.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Gatlin has agreed to cooperate with USADA by providing information that may assist in USADA's anti-doping efforts," a statement from the drug-fighting agency said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"In exchange for Gatlin's promise to co-operate and in recognition of the exceptional circumstances of his prior violation, USADA has agreed that the maximum period of suspension for this violation would be eight years."<P class=StoryText align=justify>The agency said that the disgraced sprinter would still have the right to appeal to an arbritation panel in the next six months to have the ban reduced, but he cannot now argue that the test was faulty.<P class=StoryText align=justify>US Track and Field chief executive Craig Masback said he was happy that Gatlin had accepted responsibility, but nevertheless he was still disappointed in him.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Justin Gatlin's doping case has been a setback for our sport," said Masback.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"While we are glad Justin has taken responsibility for his positive test and will cooperate in USADA's anti-doping efforts, we are sorely disappointed in him.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Our Zero Tolerance programme is focused on educating athletes about the importance of winning with integrity.
"This case is a clear signal that we must redouble our efforts and seek ways to deter drug use and to punish anyone who may influence athletes to use drugs."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Gatlin had painted himself as a role model for the anti-doping movement, despite a positive test for an amphetamine in 2001, when he was still a student at the University of Tennessee.<P class=StoryText align=justify>He argued then that it was contained in a medication he was prescribed for attention deficit disorder and was reinstated before serving all of a two-year ban.<P class=StoryText align=justify>By agreeing to co-operate with USADA in the fight against drugs, Gatlin avoided a lifetime ban, but at 24-years-old, his career as a top athletics star is still effectively over

[Gamma]

RE: Gatlin gets eight-year ban

this is a guilty plea any way yuh cut it. gatlin basically is admitting to scienter, ergo intent! what a lala!!!

[Gamma]

RE: Gatlin gets eight-year ban

spearmon, wariner or carter?

[Assasin]

RE: Gatlin gets eight-year ban

watch him sing like a bird now

[Assasin]

RE: Gatlin gets eight-year ban

watch him sing like a bird now

[Assasin]

RE: Gatlin gets eight-year ban



Gatlin 'must serve four year ban'

Justin Gatlin

Gatlin has been banned after failing a drugs test in April

Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin must serve a minimum drugs ban of four years, say world athletics chiefs.



The American, 24, faces up to eight years out but the IAAF said it might accept less if he provided evidence that led to further convictions.



Gatlin avoided a lifetime penalty because he agreed to "co-operate in the effort to eradicate drugs from sport".



"We want to know how (the drugs) got there and see if it leads to other convictions," said an IAAF spokesman.



"We would accept eight years or even less in that case - but four years would be the minimum."



Gatlin, also the world champion, received his ban on Tuesday after testing positive for testosterone, his second doping offence, on 22 April.





I think it would be a travesty if Justin Gatlin was ever allowed back on the track



Olympic legend Daley Thompson



An eight-year suspension would have effectively ended his career, but it will still be difficult to return to top-level athletics after four years out.



Gatlin first failed a drugs test in 2001 when amphetamines were found in his samples at the USA Junior Championships.



But it was accepted that medicine he had been taking for 10 years to control attention-deficit disorder was the reason for the failed test.



Gatlin was suspended for two years, but the IAAF reinstated him after one year. "We want him to tell the truth about what really happened," Davies added.



"If Gatlin just says 'I don't know what happened,' that's not good enough.



"We want him to cooperate fully with USADA and be very truthful with what happened."



Gatlin's willingness to cooperate could also see him escape facing criminal charges under the ongoing FBI investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the California clinic he and Graham have been linked to.



The IAAF is currently investigating Gatlin's coach Trevor Graham for doping violations, and he has subsequently been barred from US Olympic Committee training sites because of these links.



At least nine athletes with links to Graham have been convicted of doping violations.



Marion Jones, the former Olympic champion formerly coached by Graham, failed a doping test in June at the US Championships and awaits the results of her B sample.



Meanwhile, Olympic legend Daley Thompson has implored Gatlin to reveal who supplied him with performance-enhancing drugs.



Thompson said: "I would expect him to own up and to whistle blow on those who supplied him with drugs irrespective of any deal on offer.



"It would be great if he did one honourable act before leaving the sport," he said.



"Personally I think it would be a travesty if Justin Gatlin was ever allowed back on the track.



"It appears that he has wilfully defrauded the public, sponsors and the media for many years and has paraded himself as the new, clean, drug-free hero of the sport."