IAAF to fight Gatlin appeal

Friday, February 29, 2008

Athletics: The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will help the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) defend an appeal by Olympic 100 metres champion Justin Gatlin against a four-year doping ban.

"We will be part of the defence in the Court of Arbitration for Sport," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said today. "We are going to support USADA."

A US arbitration panel suspended Gatlin for four years after a positive test for the male sex hormone testosterone in 2006.

The panel ruled that it was a second offence after Gatlin tested positive in 2001 for medication to treat Attention Deficit Disorder. He was reinstated by the IAAF in 2002.

Gatlin has appealed to CAS and in a statement yesterday his attorney Maurice Suh said he wanted a ruling by the end of May.

Gatlin's lawyers argue that if the panel had not considered the 2001 test in its verdict he would probably have received a two-year suspension as a first-time offender.

A two-year ban would have made eligible to return to competition in May, allowing him to run in June in the US trials for the Beijing Olympics.

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