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Gatlin hires Landis attorney
13/01/2008 15:23 - (SA)
Salvo - Disgraced
American sprinter Justin Gatlin has retained cyclist Floyd
Landis's legal team in a bid to reverse a US arbitration
panel's decision to ban him for doping, the attorney told
Reuters on Saturday.
"We plan on moving very quickly because speed is of the
essence," Maurice Suh said in a telephone interview from Los
Angeles.
Both the Olympic 100m champion Gatlin and his parents
want the 25-year-old vindicated and competing again as soon as
possible, Suh said.
Earlier this month, a three-member American Arbitration
Association (AAA) panel banned Gatlin for a 2006 positive
doping test, ruling it was Gatlin's second positive result.
Gatlin, suspended through May 24, 2010, can appeal the
decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), take his
earlier positive back to the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF) or challenge the arbitration
ruling in federal court.
The IAAF could also appeal the decision and was considering
its response, spokesperson Nick Davies told Reuters.
Gatlin, a teenager at the time, tested positive in 2001 for
an amphetamine contained in a medication he took for 10 years
for Attention Deficit Disorder.
Life ban
He was suspended for two years but the IAAF later found
Gatlin had not intentionally committed a doping violation and
reinstated him after one year.
The IAAF added that any repetition of the 2001 positive
test would result in a life ban.
But the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) in a 2006 agreement
with Gatlin said it would not seek a ban of no more than eight
years in return for the sprinter not contesting the accuracy of
laboratory results for his April 2006 positive test for the
banned male sex hormone testosterone and its precursors.
Gatlin denied knowingly taking banned substances and asked
the US hearing panel to clear him or further reduce his ban.
American rider Landis was also banned for two years
following a positive test for testosterone and stripped of his
2006 Tour de France victory.
Landis is contesting the results of the test and his
suspension with the CAS, with an appeal hearing set for New
York in March.
- Reuters
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