THE omission of Steve Mullings from the Jamaican team for the World Athletics Championships which start in Daegu a week on Saturday opens a potential can of worms which the sport can ill-afford.
Winner of the 200 metres and third in the 100m at the Jamaican trials in June, he was a cert for both events in Korea as well as for his country’s defence of the relay title.
But he failed a dope test, which Jamaican sources say indicated furosemide. It is medication for asthma from which he suffers, but is also masks other drugs and, consequently, is banned. Mullings needed medical help at a recent race in New York, but would require a medical exemption certificate for furosemide.
He is provisionally suspended pending examination of the B sample in Montreal next Monday. Given he has already served a two-year ban for testosterone, missing the 2004 Athens Olympics, he now faces suspension for life.
Yet Mullings, whose agent is former GB Olympic sprinter John Regis, has not been demonised or treated as a pariah like British offender Dwain Chambers who has been excluded by promoters. Mullings and American dope cheat Justin Gatlin were both in the 100m at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene in June.
Such double standards and ambivalence towards convicted offenders damage the profile of the sport and blur the wholesome image required by those who would use it as a marketing vehicle.
Mullings, a keystone of the Jamaican team, has best times of 9.80 seconds for the 100m and 19.98 over 200m. He was fifth in the 2009 World 200m final in Berlin, setting his best time in the race in which his countryman, Usain Bolt, broke the world record.
He then led off the gold-medal Jamaican relay quartet. Of those due to compete in Daegu, Mullings ranked second at 100m and fourth at 200m.
It should be noted that he did not train with his compatriots in the Carribean, but in the US with Tyson Gay, the 2007 World 100m and 200m champion. However, that will not spare Jamaica the risk of guilt by association or the finger of doping suspicion.
This is an action replay of two years ago, when five Jamaicans tested positive for methylxanthine (a bronchial dilator and stimulant) at their trials for the World Championships. All five: Yohan Blake, Allodin Fothergill, Lansford Spence, Marvin Anderson and Sheri-Ann Brooks were withdrawn from the Berlin team.
All but Brooks, the Commonwealth 100m champion, later served a three-month suspension. Yet all four men were named on Monday in Jamaica’s team for Daegu.
Brooks escaped on a technicality two years ago (her B sample was opened without either she or her representative being present) but no longer features in elite rankings.
Blake, once the world’s fastest teenager, was in the same training group as Bolt, and the world record-holder was not spared innuendo.
Inevitably, this will now resurface. Bolt maintains good-natured equanimity in the face of repeated doping questions, but admitted at the Beijing Olympics that he had felt drained because he had given so many blood samples.
Despite there being no justification -- just extravagant prodigy -- some will again cast aspersions on the multiple World and Olympic champion. With declining advertising and TV revenue, denegration of its current greatest icon is the last thing athletics needs.
And Another Thing . . .
Beware of some worthless bets on offer around the World Athletics Championships. We looked at the odds and noted one on-line company was quoting 200-1 against Mark Lewis-Francis winning the 100m.
We won’t dignify them by naming them. They might as well have offered 10 million to one. Lewis-Francis is a non-runner. He was not selected for the 100m by Britain when they announced their team eight days ago.
So we advise caution. Athletics is a relatively novice market for on-line betting, and there is surely money to be made by cautious track and field cognoscenti. But not if you fail to read the small print.
For the record, we looked at other markets, and even Ladbrokes are off the pace for Korea, but at least they don’t void other bets in the process. They offer a marginally better 2-5 against a Bolt 100m victory. However, American Rodgers remains in their field, and they still apparently think Lewis-Francis is in the GB team, quoting him at 500-1.
We think Bolt’s compatriot, former world record-holder Asafa Powell and world leader this year (9.78sec, at odds of 21-10) may be capable of a surprise, but for value each-way bets you might like to consider Zimbabwe’s Ngonidzashe Makusha (9.89, 100-1) or Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre (9.92, 50-1).
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