ATHLETICS:Olympic 100 metres champion Justin Gatlin has been banned for four years for a 2006 positive test for testosterone, the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) said yesterday.
Usada general counsel Bill Bock said a three-member US arbitration panel, in a 2-1 split decision, had banned Gatlin for four years.
The suspension through to May 24th, 2010, could end the career of the 25-year-old Gatlin if he does not successfully appeal to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The decision has not been released publicly.
The Washington Post reported on its website that two out of the three American Arbitration Association arbitrators had said they could not give less than a four-year ban because of a previous positive test.
A third dissented, the newspaper reported.
Gatlin could not be reached for comment.
His lawyer, John Collins, declined to comment.
Gatlin failed a drugs test in 2001 for a prescribed medication for attention deficit disorder. He was reinstated by the International Association of Athletics Federations the following year.
The American won the 2004 Athens Olympic 100 metres title and completed a 100-200 metres double at the Helsinki world championships in 2005.
He won each of his five 100 metres competitions in 2006, including tying the then world record of 9.77 seconds in Doha and winning the US title.
But after it was announced that Gatlin had returned a positive test for the male sex hormone testosterone at the 2006 Kansas Relays he was suspended while his case was referred to arbitration.
GOLF: Vijay Singh, armed with a revamped swing and a new fitness trainer, is eager to return to winning ways in his title defence at this week's Mercedes-Benz Championship.
The former world number one has not tasted victory on the PGA Tour in nine months and is determined to erase memories of a largely frustrating 2007 campaign. "Last year I was very disappointed in the way I played," Singh told reporters in the build-up to the 2008 PGA Tour's opening event.
"Although I had two wins, I was really very discouraged in the way I played in the mid-season and during the majors. The two wins happened very early in the season, in the first three months, and the rest of the season was pretty cold for me."
Singh clinched the Mercedes-Benz Championship by two shots in Kapalua last January before winning his 31st PGA Tour title two months later at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Despite close calls at the Wachovia Championship in May and the Canadian Open in July, he failed to add to his trophy cabinet.
Although Singh ended the 2007 season third on the PGA Tour money list with earnings of $4,728,376, he has been working hard to revamp his swing and improve his fitness. "The position on top was very low, very flat and laid off and that's pretty much the worst place I want my golf swing to be," said the Fijian.
Singh faces a strong challenge this week on Kapalua's hilly, par-73 Plantation Course that brings together the title-holders from the previous PGA Tour season. Although Woods, British Open champion Pádraig Harrington and Phil Mickelson have opted not to play, the 31-man field includes world number three Jim Furyk, fifth-ranked Steve Stricker and South Korea's KJ Choi (ninth). Also competing are Masters champion Zach Johnson and Argentina's Angel Cabrera, winner of last year's US Open.
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