POSTED: July 24th 2009
NewsUpdate
Jamaican five fail dope tests but Usain Bolt flies clear in London
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
LONDON/KINGSTON: Five sprinters selected for Jamaica’s team heading for the world athletics championships in Berlin next month have tested positive for a banned substance.
However, a source close to the Jamaican Anti-doping Commission (JADCO) indicated that the positive tests did not involve any of the top male sprinters such as Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell (below right) and that they concerned "minor substances" which might result in cautions rather than suspensions.
Two of the five are apparently members of the newly-formed Racer track club of which Olympic triple champion Bolt is also a member. They have been withdrawn from the Jamaican world championship team and ordered home for a inquiry and disciplinary hearing.
Bolt, before winning the 100m at yet another high-speed canter in London tonight, said: "I had heard a rumour but I don't know anything else. I'm not worried."
More than 40 samples tests are understood to have been undertaken at the world championship trials on June 26-28 and were sent for testing to a laboratory in Montreal.
IAAF confirmation
Nick Davis for the international federation, the IAAF, confirmed that four men and one woman were involved. He would not name the athletes or the substance but hoped the issue would be resolved before the world championships next month.
Bolt won the 100m at the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace in 9.91sec with Yohan Blake second in 10.11sec, Daniel Bailey third and Powell fading badly to sixth at the finish. The winning time was not up to the 9.79sec which Bolt recorded at the Golden League meeting in Paris last week but it was against a testing headwind.
"I'm happy I did well for the Jamaican fans here," said Bolt. "I'm not unbeatable, that can always happen, but until then, I'm the man." In Beijing last year Bolt won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay, setting world records each time.
One Beijing winner who, surprisingly, was unsuccessful in London was Yelena Isinbayeva, the Russian pole vault world champion and Beijing gold medallist. She finished second to Poland's Anna Rogowska.
Keywords · Jamaica · world athletics championships · Berlin · JADCO · Usain Bolt · Asafa Powell
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