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Disgraced former Jamaican-born sprinter Ben Johnson now claims that he would have run for the country of his birth, and not Canada, if he could somehow turn back the hands of time.
The former track star, recently featured in the tell-all documentary 9.79, aired recently on US television network ESPN, as a part of its 30 for 30 series, has accused the maple leaf nation of leaving him in the cold after doping allegations surfaced.
"I probably wouldn't run for Canada. I probably would have run for Jamaica," Johnson told Canadian news agency CBC (http://www.cbc.ca) at the film's premiere.
"Canada never protected me or tried to reach out," Johnson went on. "They just left me in the middle of the river and said 'Swim, buddy."
The film produced by British film-maker Daniel Gordon, and aired on the US network this month, chronicles the meteoric rise and then dizzying fall of the sprinter, the sport of track of field's biggest name in the late 1980's. Johnson won the 1988 men's Olympic 100m final in a blistering time of 9.79, a mark, that had it stood, would not have been equalled until eleven years later by the United States' Maurice Green and not broken until 17 years later by Jamaica's Asafa Powell (9.77). However, Johnson, who also set a world record at the 1987 World Championships, was stripped of the gold medal and the time after his urine samples tested positive for stanozolol, a drug used on horses.
Johnson was born in Falmouth, Trelawny , the same parish as Jamaican sprint legend and current world record holder Usain Bolt, but emigrated to Canada in 1976.
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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