“As we approach the world championships, we will remain focused on the competition at hand and winning the right way.” governing body, said in a statement: “It is not the news anyone wanted to hear, at any time, about any athlete. Gay, the 2007 world 100 and 200 champion, said he could not reveal the substance or how the positive occurred. I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down,” said Gay, who added he had never knowingly taken a performance-enhancing drug.
Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on Friday that his A sample from an out-of-competition test on May 16 had returned a positive. Gay, 30, told two reporters in a telephone conference call that he had been notified by the U.S. Gay’s admission came in a week when media reports said that up to 30 Turkish athletes faced doping bans after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) confirmed the country had been targeted over concerns about abnormal biological passport values.īiological passports track changes in athletes’ blood profiles which could be caused by doping. Jamaica, the sunlit Caribbean island which currently dominates world sprinting, was hit by another doping scandal last month when twice Olympic 200 metres gold medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown was suspended by her national federation after a positive test for a banned diuretic.
Blake did not compete at the championships because of injury while Bolt won the 100 metres. The managers for Bolt and world 100 metres champion Yohan Blake said their athletes were not involved. I would not intentionally take an illegal substance of any form into my system.”Įarlier sources close to Jamaican athletics said five athletes, including two Olympic medallists, had tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs at the championships. “As an athlete, I know I am responsible for whatever that goes into my body. “This is a very difficult time for me,” she said in a statement. Simpson, 28, who finished equal second in the 100 metres at the 2008 Beijing Games and won a gold medal in the 2004 Athens 4x100 metres relay, also denied knowingly taking a banned substance. “I am not now, nor have I ever been, a cheat,” he said in a statement. Powell, 30, who has been in good form recently said he had not wilfully taken supplements or substances that broke any rules. Oxilophrine has similar properties to ephedrine, although it has a different chemical structure, and both are on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list.
Instead he has withdrawn from Friday’s Diamond League meeting in Monaco and the world championships on the worst day of a bad week for the central sport of the Olympic Games.Īlso on Sunday, former world 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell and Olympic 4x100 metres relay silver medallist Sherone Simpson said they had both tested positive for the stimulant oxilophrine at last month’s Jamaican championships. Tyson has run the fastest three 100 metres of the year and his clash with Jamaica’s Olympic 100 and 200 champion Usain Bolt would have been the highlight of the championships. Former double world sprint champion Tyson Gay delivered a further body blow to his troubled sport on Sunday when he pulled out of next month’s Moscow world championships after failing an out-of-competition dope test.