“From a marketing standpoint, it is another case where the only time mainstream sports audiences are going to hear about this sport is in a negative context. “For our sport, this is the only time we get into the headlines and that negative publicity can’t help the sport in the long term,” he said. However, Paul Swangard, the marketing director at the Warsaw Sports Marketing Centre at the University of Oregon, told Reuters that the positive tests were a blow to the sport’s image.
“The credibility of our anti-doping programme, and the sport of athletics, is enhanced, not diminished, each time we are able to uncover a new case and we have the committed support of every athlete, coach or official who believes in clean sport.” The fact that we are able to detect and remove from the sport athletes who have breached our anti-doping rules should be seen in this context. “It is for them that we have built a programme that is well resourced, far reaching and sophisticated. 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 Instead he has withdrawn from Friday’s Diamond League meeting in Monaco and the world championships on the worst day of a bad week for the central sport of the Olympic Games.Īlso on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.
reacts after finishing fourth in the men's 100m final during the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium August 5, 2012.