US doping chief hails double ban

The decision to ban American sprinters Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines for two years each has been hailed as “a great day for clean athletes” by the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Montgomery has been forced to relinquish his status as a former 100 metres world record holder after he and three-time world relay sprint champion Gaines were found guilty of doping offences by the Court of Arbitration for Sport yesterday.

The pair were not charged because of a positive drugs test but instead the case against them was based on information gleaned from materials taken in raids on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO). The ban is effective from June 6, 2005.

BALCO were accused of being the source of the previously undetectable designer steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone) and the USADA charged Montgomery and Gaines with taking performance-enhancing drugs.

USADA chief executive officer Terry Madden greeted CAS’ ruling and told his organisation’s official website www.usantidoping.org: “The CAS panel affirmed that these two athleteswere willing participants in the BALCO drug conspiracy and between the two athletes invalidated more than six years of competitive results.

“It is always a great day for clean athletes when individuals who cheat are held accountable and stripped of the rewards gained through doping.

“The unfortunate part of this BALCO chapter is that these two athletes

knew they were guilty of doping and they wasted everyone’s time and resources attempting to run from the consequences of their actions.”

In a statement on the CAS website, it emerged that former double world champion Kelli White, who is also serving a two-year ban after admitting doping, testified against the pair, claiming they both admitted using prohibited substances provided by BALCO.

As well as the suspensions, effective from June 6 this year, all results, rankings, awards and winnings obtained by Montgomery since March 31, 2001 and Gaines since November 30, 2003 will be cancelled.

This means Montgomery will no longer be credited as a former world record holder as he set his mark in Paris in September 2002.

He will also relinquish the silver medal he won in the 100m at the 2001 World Championships and the gold claimed by the 4x100m sprint relay.

The pair declined arbitration by the USADA, instead going directly to CAS whose decision is final without recourse to appeal.

BALCO head Victor Conte, sentenced to four months in prison in October after pleading guilty to steroid distribution, said last year he had supplied Montgomery and partner – triple Olympic champion Marion Jones – with THG, EPO (erythropoietin) and insulin.

The American is the highest-profile athlete to be banned since Ben Johnson was stripped of the Olympic 100m title he won in Seoul in 1988 in a world record time of 9.79 seconds when he tested positive for an anabolic steroid, stanozolol.

The Canadian was banned for two years and returned to the track before again testing positive for steroids in 1993 and was banned for life.

The scandal broke when Montgomery and Jones’ former coach Trevor Graham anonymously sent a syringe containing a new steroid to the USADA and it was identified as THG.

A federal probe was launched into the California laboratory in 2003 and the fall-out engulfed some of athletics’ top names, including Britain’s Dwain Chambers, who got a two-year ban.

Chambers was second behind Montgomery when the American set a new world record of 9.78secs in Paris in September 2002, with the Briton equalling compatriot Linford Christie’s European record of 9.87secs.

However, the 27-year-old is in danger of being stripped of that mark, as well as his European Championship titles in the 100m and sprint relay in the same year, after admitting taking THG since the turn of 2002.

As well as founder Conte, Greg Anderson – personal trainer to baseball star Barry Bonds – was jailed for three months and vice-president James Valente was given probation.

Remy Korchemny – Chambers’ former coach – is expected to be given probation.