LONDON, 3 February 2004 — The American governing athletics body USA Track & Field (USATF) has averted a certain confrontation with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the probable expense of six 2000 Sydney Games gold medalists.

Bowing to increasing pressure from the IOC and the US Olympic Committee (USOC), USATF finally agreed on Sunday to release documents relating to the Jerome Young doping case.

The world 400 meters champion tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in 1999 but was cleared by USATF, without the IOC’s knowledge, to run in Sydney.

Young won a gold medal as an alternate on the US 4x400 meters relay squad, which was anchored by five-times Olympic champion Michael Johnson.

His name was made public by an American newspaper after he won the world 400 title in Paris last August, prompting the Olympic authorities to demand that USATF release his name.

A spokesman for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said yesterday the world governing body would probably ask the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) later this week to rule that Young should not have competed in Sydney.

If CAS agrees, the IOC is then likely to strip the entire American relay team of its medals and promote Jamaica to the gold medal.

Last year CAS dismissed an appeal from Russian cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina against a decision by the IOC executive board to strip her of the gold medal she won at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

Lazutina won the 30 kms title but lost her gold medal after a positive test for the blood boosting drug darbepoetin.

An IOC spokeswoman welcomed the USATF decision although she said it was too early to say what the ultimate outcome would be. “It’s really the next step toward a resolution of this issue,” she said.

The latest development in the Young case comes at the start of a month in which several other high-profile doping cases come under the spotlight.

Next week British number two tennis player Greg Rusedski will have a doping case, also for nandrolone, heard in Montreal.

Rusedski admitted last month he tested positive for the steroid at a tournament in Indianapolis on July 23 last year.

He has denied knowingly taking drugs, saying 47 other samples taken by the Association of Tennis Professionals have shown elevated levels.

Also this month, Britain’s European 100 meters champion Dwain Chambers will have a hearing by UK Athletics after his positive test for the designer steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone). Four other athletes, all American, have also tested positive for the drug.

American double world sprint champion Kelli White is one of six athletes whose positive tests for the stimulant modafinil are being considered by the US Anti-Doping Agency.

Modafinil, used to treat the sleeping disorder narcolepsy, is now considered a serious drug carrying an automatic two-year suspension.

However White is likely to escape with the loss of her Paris medals only as at the time the drug was not on the banned list and was regarded by the IAAF as related to minor stimulants.