TESTING TIMES: Powell and Gay.
AFP/New York
A raft of Olympic and world champions have lamented the “disappointing” doping scandal that has gripped track and field after top sprinters Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell failed tests.
The duo’s positive A samples were revealed last week, plunging the sport into crisis and turning the focus onto banned substances just three weeks away from the August 10-18 world championships in Moscow.
“It’s a shame you have to talk about it, comment on it, have an opinion on it because you can be quite close to these athletes at the same time,” said Australia’s world and Olympic 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson.
Seemingly too close for Gay and Powell’s respective teammates Carmelita Jeter and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the female sprinting duo feistily refusing to entertain questions on doping and eventually storming out of their joint press conference.
Pearson, however, praised the crackdown on doping and stressed that the bottom line for athletes was personal responsibility. “It’s disappointing that these things happen, but it’s good that WADA or whatever doping agency is keeping on top of the athletes.
“We like to compete cleanly and fairly.”
“You’ve just got to keep going and working hard and being really diligent about what goes into your body and who you trust.”
World and Olympic triple jump gold medallist Christian Taylor, a teammate of Gay’s on the US team, added: “It’s unfortunate for the sport that we even have to discuss it.
“From a sports standpoint we don’t want it... But it’s good to have these organisations to stay on top of things.”
Taylor added: “You want a clean field, a fair field. It shows there’s someone on top of it. Having organisations like USADA or WADA you know there’s always someone watching.”
Up-and-coming American high jump star Brigetta Barrett, Olympic silver medallist in the London Games, said it was “always shocking when your ‘heroes’ have fallen”.
“You don’t expect these people to have positive tests,” she said, calling for a better distribution of finances among athletes to close the gap “that causes possible desperation”.
She also called for athletics’ world governing body to open up opportunities for increased personal sponsorship, a thing the IAAF outlaws in the “clean canvas” deals it offers its main heavyweight sponsors.
The last word went to Gay’s controversial teammate Justin Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic 100m champion who went on to serve a four-year doping ban and came back to claim Olympic bronze last year, much to the dismay of his many critics.
“It never crossed my mind that they were doping,” he said of the failed tests of his sprint rivals. “You have to keep it basic in regard to who’s around you, who you trust, who’s in your inner circle.
“You have to make sure you’re responsible for what’s going into your body.”
Gay’s positive drugs test ‘terrible’ — IAAF head
New York: Tyson Gay’s positive drugs test was “terrible” news, according to Lamine Diack, head of track and field’s world governing body, the IAAF.
Gay, the second fastest sprinter ever, and Jamaican ex-world record holder Asafa Powell, the fourth fastest, were revealed as having failed doping tests last week.
“I know the two of them well, they’re two great guys,” said Diack. “I know Asafa well, it’s a catastrophe for me.
“And to see that Tyson was positive was terrible for me because I know the boy and I had occasion to talk to him and his mother after Osaka (where the American won triple sprint gold).
“We took the same plane and spent about 10 hours together, we discussed how we see our sport, what his role is as a role model. What happened, we’ll see, I’m waiting to find out.”
The positive tests, Diack continued, “were really harmful to our sport, especially two at such a high level”.
“This is very difficult for our sport. Someone could write a book about what’s going on: is the performance really acceptable or not? But I think that’s wrong.
“We’re doing thousands and thousands and thousands of tests in and out of competition.”
But he said the media were partly to blame: “We have 1,000 tests and 50 positives, and the 50 positives are news, the 950 negative are not news.
“We will do our best to catch the cheaters.”
