Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, two of the four fastest men in history, sent shock waves through the blue riband 100m on Sunday when both men failed drug tests.
Gay, the 30-year-old American who was world champion in 2007 and the fastest man in the world this year, tested positive for a banned substance and immediately withdrew from next month’s world championships in Moscow.
Jamaican sprint star Powell, a former 100m world-record holder, confirmed that he had tested positive for a banned stimulant at his country’s national trials for Moscow, but the 30-year-old strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
Photo: AFP
Only Olympic champion and world record holder Usain Bolt (9.58 seconds) has gone faster than Gay, whose best of 9.69 seconds he shares with Yohan Blake of Jamaica. Powell is the fourth fastest man of all time with 9.72 seconds.
Gay was informed by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on Friday of his failed test and on Sunday USA Track & Field (USATF) said he had pulled out of the world championships.
“He stated he is withdrawing,” USATF spokesperson Jill Geer said.
The USADA said on Sunday that the 30-year-old’s B sample has yet to be tested, so it would not confirm or deny the failed test.
“In response to Mr Gay’s statements, USADA appreciates his approach to handling this situation and his choice to voluntarily remove himself from competition while the full facts surrounding his test are evaluated,” USADA media relations manager Annie Skinner said. “The B sample will be processed shortly and as in all cases, all athletes are innocent unless or until proven otherwise through the established legal process, and any attempt to sensationalize or speculate is a disservice to due process, fair play and to those who love clean sport.”
Gay told US media he had made a mistake and been let down by someone else.
The USATF said it would continue to look to the USADA to help it weed out drug cheats in the sport.
“USA Track & Field is strongly opposed to doping and we respect the work that USADA has done as a leading agency globally in the fight against drugs in sport,” USATF chief executive Max Siegel said.
Gay had run the fastest time in the world this year in the US trials for the world championships in Iowa last month. His 9.75 seconds was the 10th fastest 100m of all time.
World record holder Bolt’s best time over 100m this season is 9.94 seconds set in Kingston last month.
Gay won the triple of 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in Osaka, Japan, at the 2007 world championships, while also claiming a 4x100m silver medal at the London Olympics last year.
Powell, also 30, took to Twitter to confirm his dope test failure.
“I will confirm that a sample I gave at the National Trials in June has returned ‘adverse findings,’” he said. “The substance oxilofrine was found, which is considered by the authorities to be a banned stimulant. I want to be clear that I have never knowingly or willfully taken any supplements or substances that break any rules. I am not now nor have I ever been a cheat.”
Powell held the 100m world record between June 2005 and May 2008.
He won two bronze medals in the 100m at the 2007 and 2009 world championships. He also won a gold in the 4x100m relay in 2009.
However, he has never managed an individual sprint medal at the Olympics, finishing fifth in the 2004 Athens Games and the 2008 Beijing 100m finals, before limping home in eighth place in the final in London last summer.
According to media reports, Powell was one of five athletes who failed drug tests at the national trials last month in Kingston.
Sherone Simpson, a silver medalist in the women’s 100m at the 2008 Olympics, was one of them, according to a report in Britain’s Daily Telegraph.
The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper claimed the substance taken may have been contained in a food supplement.
“My team and I will try to do everything we can to get this issue dealt with as best as we can,” Simpson told the Gleaner. “Thanks to all who have been supporting me, I really appreciate it at this time.”
Later on Sunday, Powell’s agent, Tara Playfair-Scott, revealed on Twitter that a man who allegedly supplied the supplements had been arrested in Italy.
“He has been detained by Italian law enforcement in conjunction with this matter. The investigations continue,” she wrote.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but