BAF awaits confirmation of drug test

Athletics

Athletics

The British Athletic Federation yesterday insisted that it had yet to be officially told of the three-month drug ban reportedly handed out to Matt Douglas.

The Milton Keynes runner is understood to have tested positive for the banned stimulant, ephedrine, at a meeting at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall in January when he finished second to Jamie Baulch in the 400 metres.

Reports yesterday suggested the International Amateur Federation had handed down the three-month sentence, but Jayne Pearce, the BAF spokesman, said nothing was official as yet. "I can confirm that there has been an incident of doping but the BAF have yet to receive confirmation of the result of the B sample," she said. "According to our rules we are in the process of arranging a hearing although the date has yet to be confirmed."

Meanwhile, in Perth yesterday, Dean Capobianco, the Australian sprinter, said he will continue to fight the IAAF over a four-year ban for testing positive to stanozolol, an anabolic steroid. The Olympic sprinter used a news conference to attack the IAAF, which announced the ban on 17 March.

Linford Christie, the former Olympic champion, is to compete in Qatar next month. Christie, the 100m gold medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, features among an array of leading athletes racing at the first Qatar International meeting in Doha on 24 April.

The Namibian sprinter, Frankie Fredericks, the American Butch Reynolds, the Zambian 400m hurdler, Samuel Matete, and the leading Kenyans, William Tanui, Paul Bitok and Joseph Keter, are also scheduled to compete.

Christie's British compatriots in the line-up include John Regis (200m), Roger Black, Baulch (both 400m), Colin Jackson and Tony Jarrett (both 110m hurdles).