20 Aug 2009

Doping-tainted Jamaicans out of world relays

6:33 am on 20 August 2009

Five Jamaican track and field athletes expected to run in the 4x100 and 4x400 metres relays at the world championships this weekend have been dropped from the team.

Sprinters Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson and Sheri-Ann Brooks as well as Allodin Fothergill and Lansford Spence had tested positive for the stimulant methylxanthine but were allowed to race pending an appeal.

But an International Association of Athletics Federations spokesman Nick Davies says the Jamaican team has decided to withdraw them.

The IAAF had warned the Jamaicans that if they subsequently banned the athletes for doping, their results in the relays and any medals won would be taken away.

That avoids potential source of embarrassment for Jamaican athletics, which has already seen sprinters Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser win gold in the men's and women's 100 metres blue riband events.