It is reported that Justin Gatlin’s 8-year-long suspension on charges of doping, has been cut down to only 4 years. The 100m Olympic champ from America was banned in 2006, when he tested positive for testosterone at the low-level relay race held at Kansas in the month of April 2006. He was the winner of 100m title at the Athens Olympic in 2004 and won the world 100m and 200 m titles in 2005.

Initially, Gatlin was supposed to be given a lifelong ban! Then he willingly came forward to assist the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (Usada) anti-doping crusade and he was sentenced to 8-year-ban. After the 25-year-old appealed again against the length of suspension last summer, Usada revealed that an arbitration board had voted 2-1 in favor of the 4-year suspension.

According to The Washington Post reports, two among the three members of the arbitration panel suggested that they could not give less than a 4-year ban because of the another positive dope-test of Gatlin in 2001.

Even after the reduction of his suspension term, the champion racer will not be able to compete again before 24th May, 2010. It is expected that he will be appealing again to further cut down the 4-year term even though this is the minimum sanction as per 2006 recommendations of the worldwide governing body IAAF.

Neither Gatlin nor his solicitor has yet made any comment on the recent judgment or whether they will again appeal against this verdict to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas). Gatlin has not participated in any competition after he won the 100m race at the 2006 US national championships held in June.

Gatlin, who was the strongest contender and the defending champion at Beijing Olympic, confessed that he had tested positive for doping, had claimed that he never consumed those banned compounds deliberately. His mother has told the media that her son is still optimistic about starting to race again in future. She said,

There is no doubt about that...We will be talking to his lawyer. I think everybody is blindsided by this decision.

When Gatlin tested positive for doping at Kansas in 2006, it was his 2nd drug test in which he failed. He first failed a drug test in the 2001 USA Junior Championships when amphetamines were found in his samples. But then, the reason for this failed test was reportedly caused by a medicine that he had been consuming for almost 10 years to tackle his attention-deficit disorder.

As per the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code, he was supposed to be punished with a lifetime suspension after 2 failed tests. On Tuesday, Usada chief executive officer Travis Tygart said,

Mr Gatlin should be commended for his decision to cooperate with authorities following his positive test...However, these efforts do not completely remove his responsibility for his second doping offence...Given his cooperation and the circumstances relating to Mr Gatlin’s first offence, the four-year penalty issued by the arbitration panel is a fair and just outcome.

How far Gatlin truly executes his promise to campaign against anti-doping after his 4-year sanction is over, is a contentious issue.

Source: BBC161125