The coach of newly crowned 100 meters Olympic champion Justin Gatlin has admitted he sent the syringe that sparked the biggest drugs scandal in American athletics history.
Trevor Graham announced he was the coach who had supplied the American anti-doping agency, USADA, with information on the designer drug tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) as well as a syringe filled with the substance.
The revelation was made just minutes after 22-year-old Gatlin crossed the line to win one of the finest Olympic finals of all time on Sunday.
“I was just a coach doing the right thing at that time,” he said. Graham, who has six athletes who have tested positive for doping, formerly coached triple Olympic champion Marion Jones and her boyfriend and 100m world record holder Tim Montgomery.
However, their relationship has soured to such an extent that Jones is the subject of lurid allegations of drug-taking by her bitter ex-husband and drugs cheat CJ Hunter, who remains close to Graham.
Jones, who is set to appear at the Olympics in the long jump, is under investigation by USADA and has denied all such allegations, Montgomery is one of four US track stars facing a lifetime ban accused by USADA of using an array of prohibited performance-enhancing substances.
Jones’ form has slumped to such an extent that she failed to qualify for the 100m and 200m in which she was the titleholder and ironically made the long jump which is seen as her weakest event. Montgomery failed to get to the 100m and isn’t even on the relay squad.
Meanwhile, Olympic women’s shot put winner Irina Korzhanenko of Russia has been stripped of her medal and thrown out of the Games after failing a doping test the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced here yesterday.
Korzhanenko tested positive after winning the Olympic title on Aug. 18 for stanozolol, a banned anabolic steroid, said an IOC spokeswoman.
Nikolai Durmanov, the head of Russia’s anti-doping commission, said a full investigation would be launched into the affair.
