Fri, Jan 04, 2008 page22

• Gatlin to challenge doping suspension

  SPRINTING TO COURT The US arbitration panel's ruling means Justin Gatlin will not be eligible to defend his 100m title at the Beijing Olympics Games in August

  • AP
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  Olympic champion sprinter Justin Gatlin will challenge his four-year doping suspension and may take the case to the US courts in a bid to defend his title.

  "We may have to file multiple actions at the same time," Gatlin's attorney John Collins said on Wednesday.

  A three-member US arbitration panel -- acting under the rules for appeal by the US Anti-Doping Agency -- voted 2-1 to suspend Gatlin, who faced a possible eight-year ban for his second doping offense, in a 53-page ruling released on Tuesday.

  

  US runner Justin Gatlin crosses the finish line after setting a new 100m world record with a time of 9.76 seconds at the Qatar Super Grand Prix in Doha, Qatar, on May 12, 2006.

  PHOTO: AFP

  Under the panel's ruling, Gatlin would be eligible to run May 25, 2010. That would prevent him from defending his 100m title at the Beijing Olympics this August. If the sprinter can get his first offense erased, it likely would result in a two-year ban that would expire this May, a month before the US Olympic trials.

  Collins said his strategy of taking the matter to the US courts was that he believes there is precedent for a US judicial ruling to be applied internationally, but acknowledges that's not a certainty.

  Gatlin tested positive for excessive testosterone at the Kansas Relays in April 2006. It was his second doping offense. As a 19-year-old competitor at the Youth World Championships, Gatlin tested positive for amphetamines, part of a prescribed medication he was taking for attention deficit disorder.

  The US arbitration panel unanimously ruled Gatlin committed a doping offense in April 2006, but the sprinter's first doping offense in 2001 troubled the group.

  Gatlin had taken medication for attention deficit disorder since childhood. He stopped taking the medication three days before the competition, but small amounts still were detected.

  Gatlin continued to compete for the University of Tennessee and was reinstated for international competition after just one year of what would have been a two-year ban. An arbitration panel in the 2001 case determined Gatlin did not attempt to cheat.

  That panel, however, did not find that he had "no fault" in the case. Collins argued there was no such finding because none was required under rules in place at the time.

  Gatlin can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, take the 2001 case back to the International Association of Athletics Federations or challenge the ruling in a US court. A lawsuit would maintain that his first offense should be thrown out because it violates Gatlin's rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

  The act is a US law which prohibits discrimination of those deemed to have a mental or physical disability.

  Christopher Campbell was the dissenter in the panel's 2-1 vote.

  "Increasing Mr Gatlin's sanction for his first violation because of his disability [attention deficit disorder] is blatant discrimination in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act," Campbell wrote.

  Campbell, a former Olympic wrestler who has dissented in several arbitration panel rulings against athletes, accused anti-doping organizations of "behaving as if they are above the law."

  "In these situations, they are nothing more than bullies preying on the vulnerable," Campbell wrote. "The federal government should take a serious look at this practice."

  Collins, who also represented Gatlin in the 2001 case, said he would meet with the family to determine the next course of action.

  "We have to talk it over," he said in a telephone interview from his Chicago office. "We're going to do something."

  Collins harshly criticized the panel for failing to mention how many of the advanced, more elaborate tests Gatlin had passed before and after the 2006 positive test. Collins had argued that Gatlin unknowingly had a testosterone cream applied to him by a disgruntled massage therapist, who repeatedly has denied the allegations.

  The sprinter also said he received an injection of what supposedly was vitamin B-12 from Randall Evans, an assistant to coach Trevor Graham, in the weeks leading up to the Kansas competition.

  While praising Gatlin's demeanor and cooperation, the panel said it could not rule out the possibility that he had knowingly taken the drug.

  The panel noted Gatlin cooperated with US investigators probing the San Francisco-area Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.

  But Collins criticized the ruling for failing to mention that BALCO lead investigator Jeff Novitzky testified he found no evidence Gatlin ever knowingly used performance enhancing drugs.

  Collins said he believes the panel was swayed by the fact that Graham was Gatlin's coach.

  "It's guilt by association," he said.
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