PARIS, 2 September 2003 — While the United States remain the dominant force in athletics they leave the World Championships with their reputation, if not in tatters, at least tarnished by the off the field incidents which seemed never to go away.

IOC President Jacques Rogge had said prior to the championships it was a paradox athletics received little or no coverage within the United States which is the sport’s strongest nation.

The scandals here will have done their cause little good as the team put on their own show of the The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. However, it should take nothing away from the wonderful achievements of Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj in the 1,500 meters and American Allen Johnson in the 110m hurdles taking their fourth world crowns.

The symbolism of seeing 20-year-old Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele take over the baton of long distance king from compatriot Haile Gebrselassie in the 10,000m was a shining light as were the dominant shows by Ana Guevara in the 400m and Jana Pittman, who replaced Cathy Freeman in Australian hearts, in the 400m hurdles.

In a championships lacking in outstanding times, Bekele and El Guerrouj’s ultimately glorious failure to double up in the 5,000m title gave the event the dramatic ending it needed.

For the Americans, the bad was the revelation sprint queen Kelli White had tested positive for Modafinil which stimulates the nervous system and combats tiredness. While not on the banned list, it could still lead to her being stripped of her 100m and 200m titles and, possibly, a two year suspension if the drug is judged to be a “related substance” and part of either the family of drugs known as ephedrine or amphetamines which are forbidden.

White, the first woman since the subsequently disgraced East German Katrin Krabbe in 1991 to do the 100m-200m double, said she took it because she suffered from narcolepsy which causes extreme tiredness. The IAAF said it would need further investigation to establish the veracity of her claims.

It is now up to the domestic governing body, US Track and Field (USATF) to hold a hearing into her case. However, they too are being held to account by the IOC when it was revealed newly-crowned 400m champion Jerome Young had run at the Sydney Olympics despite testing positive for steroids in 1999.

While the 27-year-old Jamaican-born athlete was cleared in an internal hearing the IOC wanted to know why they hadn’t been informed particularly as he went on to win gold in the 4x400m relay Olympic gold — having run in the heats.

Jon Drummond provided the ugly input in both his refusal to leave the track after being disqualified in his 100 meters quarterfinal and his subsequent 20 minute lie-down protest.

The bad continued into the 100m where the fading powers of Olympic champion Maurice Greene and world record holder Tim Montgomery were laid bare as the former crashed out in the semis and the latter finished fifth in the final as the USA ended without a medal in the blue riband event for the first time since 1995.

British Blushes After Championship Flop

Britain’s athletics bosses have given a vote of confidence to performance director Max Jones following Britain’s worst-ever World Championship performance. The British team, among the best in the world over recent years, came away from Paris with just two silvers and two bronzes.

That left them languishing down in 26th place in the medals table behind such lesser lights as St. Kitts and Nevis and Qatar.

It was in stark contrast to last year’s European Championships in Munich when Britain’s athletes put in a powerful showing and it has triggered calls for action to be taken ahead of next year’s Athens Olympics. But British athletics chief David Moorcroft said that Jones has his full backing.

Cheers to Tears for Australia’s Golden Girl

In Sydney, Australia’s new golden girl of the track Jana Pittman should be laughing, instead she is in tears after a split with her fiance and fellow athlete Rohan Robinson, it was reported yesterday.

Twenty-year-old Pittman became Australia’s latest world champion when she spectacularly won the 400-meters hurdles at the Paris event last week.

But Pittman has turned her back on lucrative prize money to capitalize on her new-won fame by passing up running in Brussels this week and the Grand Prix final in Monaco to get over her emotional upheaval.

The pair have been together for three years after meeting at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, where Pittman moved after the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Robinson, an Atlanta Olympics finalist in the 400m hurdles who is 10 years older than Pittman, is said to have been crucial in steering Pittman from the institute to her current coach, Phil King in Victoria.

India’s George Eyes Further Long Jump Glory

In New Delhi, long-jumper Anju Bobby George has set her sights on winning an Olympic medal at next year’s Athens Games after clinching India’s first-ever World Championship medal.

George jumped 6.70 meters to take bronze at the Stade de France, achieving what is being hailed as one of the greatest feats in Indian sport.

“I’m delighted, this is like a dream,” George said from Paris. India has never won an athletics medal at the Olympic Games.

The country’s best-known runner, ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh, finished fourth in the 400 meters at the 1960 Rome Olympics and P.T. Usha was fourth in the women’s 400m hurdles at Los Angeles in 1984.