American Justin Gatlin, the world and Olympic 100m champion and co-holder of the 100m world record, revealed on Saturday that he had tested positive for ”testosterone or its precursors” in April.
”I have been informed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency that after a relay race I ran in Kansas City on April 22, I tested positive for ‘testosterone or its precursors’,” Gatlin said in a statement.
”I cannot account for these results because I have never knowingly used any banned substance or authorised anyone else to administer such a substance to me.”
Gatlin, who shares the 100m world record of 9,77 seconds with Jamaica’s Asafa Powell, could find himself facing a lifetime ban for a second doping offence.
He tested positive for an amphetamine in 2001 when he was a student at the University of Tennessee.
He argued it was contained in a medication he was prescribed for attention deficit disorder and was reinstated before serving all of a two-year ban.
Gatlin said he was well-aware a second offence could be the end of his career.
”That experience made me even more vigilant to make certain that I do not come into contact with any banned substance for any reason whatsoever, because any additional anti-doping rule offence could mean a lifetime ban from the sport that I love,” Gatlin said.
”It is simply not consistent with either my character or my confidence in my God-given athletic ability to cheat in any way,” he added.
Gatlin had been scheduled to go head-to-head with Powell over 100m in a Grand Prix athletics meeting in London on Friday, but pulled out earlier this month citing a leg injury.
Gatlin also pulled out of the Athens Super Grand Prix on July 3, where he had been scheduled to return to the city of his 2004 Olympic triumph.
In addition to his 100m gold, he earned Olympic bronze in the 200m and a silver in the 4x100m relay.
He added the world title to his Olympic crown in Helsinki last year, where he also won the 200m.
In Doha on May 12, he matched Powell’s 100m world mark. In fact, he was briefly credited with sole possession of the coveted record with a time of 9.76sec, but the time was later officially revised to 9.77. — AFP
