Gatlin maintains innocence at arbitration hearing

ATLANTA: Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin, bidding to get an eight-year doping ban overturned, told an arbitration hearing he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Gatlin and around seven others testified at the hearing including therapist Chris Whetstine and Jeff Novitzky, the lead investigator in the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) case, according to Gatlin's lawyer John Collins.

The two-day United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) hearing at the American Arbitration Association's offices in Atlanta was set to end Tuesday but ran into a third day with participants communicating via conference call, Collins said.

"We finished the hearing. Justin testified and told his story and explained to everyone how he never knowingly used a prohibited substance," Collins said in a telephone interview.

"Jeff Novitzky also testified about Justin's cooperation ... in the ongoing BALCO case including making a number of recorded conversations and ... (Novitzky) said he had no evidence that Justin Gatlin ever knowingly used or received a prohibited substance from anyone," Collins said.

The American joint world record-holder tested positive for testosterone or its precursors at the Kansas Relays in April 2006, but has always denied knowingly taking banned substances.

Collins said it was unclear how the banned substance had entered Gatlin's system.

"It wasn't through a shot and it wasn't orally so it only leaves through his skin," Collins said, adding that he did not know when a decision in the case would be announced.

Gatlin would not be eligible to run until July 2014 unless he receives a shorter ban. He would then be 32, a relatively advanced age for a sprinter.

The 2004 Olympic gold medalist equaled Asafa Powell's 100m world record of 9.77 seconds in May 2006. He would lose the record unless cleared by the arbitration panel.

Gatlin also tested positive in 2001 for an amphetamine contained in a medication he took for 10 years for Attention Deficit Disorder.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) later reinstated him after one year of a two-year suspension, finding that he had not intentionally committed a doping violation.

The positive test, however, could be considered by the arbitration panel in determining the length of Gatlin's suspension.

Agencies

(China Daily 08/03/2007 page23)