American 400 meters sprinter Alvin Harrison has accepted a four-year ban handed down for doping offences, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old Harrison, a 2000 US Olympic 400m relay gold medalist and silver medalist over 400m, was banned for his role in the BALCO affair and not for testing positive.
Harrison's twin brother Calvin is currently banned for doping offences.
A USADA statement said Tuesday: "Harrison admitted to using numerous undetectable performance-enhancing drugs.
"These included anabolic steroids known as `the clear' and `the cream,' EPO, insulin, growth hormone and modafinil."
The BALCO laboratory in California, which is being accused of supplying a number of top athletes with a range of banned substances including steroids, is at the center of the biggest drugs scandal in American athletics history.
A number of top athletes were implicated in the scandal. A court case is still ongoing in San Francisco.
BALCO Labs executive director Victor Conte, who is accused of steroid distribution, two weeks ago asked a US federal court to drop the charges against him because of procedural errors made at the time of his arrest.
The Internal Revenue Service investigation sparked grand jury hearings that saw a number of star sports figures testify, including baseball slugger Barry Bonds, boxer Shane Mosley and athletics stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.
Conte and three others face steroid charges that include the creation of the once-undetectable steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
RSS