Gatlin handed four-year ban by US drugs panel

REIGNING 100 metre Olympic champion Justin Gatlin has been suspended for four years for a doping violation, the Washington Post reported on its website yesterday.

According to the newspaper, Gatlin, 25, who had expected to compete in this year's Olympics in Beijing, was informed on Monday of the decision by a three-man US anti-doping agency arbitration panel.

Gatlin tested positive for testosterone on 22 April, 2006 and has spent the past 20 months fighting the charge.

Gatlin, who won the 100 and 200 metres at the 2005 World Championships, argued that a previous offence while in college should not be held against him because he took the medication for an attention deficit disorder. Gatlin can appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. John Collins, Gatlin's Chicago-based lawyer, declined to comment, saying he hadn't yet read the ruling.

Gatlin had further argued that he was possibly sabotaged by a massage therapist who rubbed the testosterone cream on his legs.