Athletics: Modafinil is drug of choice, says IAAF chief

Modafinil, the drug which the world 100 metres champion, Kelli White, claims she took for a sleep disorder, has become the "fashionable" stimulant of choice among certain American athletes, the sport's top anti-doping official said yesterday.

"It's a little odd to find an epidemic of narcolepsy in top athletes," Arne Ljungqvist, the head of the International Association of Athletics Federations' medical commission, said. "The disorder of narcolepsy is not that frequent."

Ljungqvist was speaking after the American 400m runner Calvin Harrison became the latest athlete identified as having tested positive for the substance, although Harrison's comments about his case appeared to make it clear that the stimulant had not been recommended to him for any other reason than to keep him, in his own words, "up".

The Olympic and world gold medallist, who has trained with Dwain Chambers in the group supervised by the Ukrainian coach, Remy Korchemny, confirmed he had tested positive for modafinil at this summer's American Championships.

"I did have modafinil in my system," Harrison said. He added that he was given the substance by a coach in California, stressing that he had never been given an illegal substance by his current coach, Trevor Graham.

"He [the coach in California] had given me this pill and I had taken it. He told me it was not a steroid and that it would just keep you 'up' so you wouldn't be so fatigued," Harrison said. "He emphasised that it was not on the banned substance list and assured me that it was not an illegal substance."

Ljungqvist said a spate of positive tests for modafinil suggests the substance is part of a pattern of doping abuse in the United States along with the designer steroid THG.

Chambers, who tested positive for THG at an out-of-competition sampling on 1 August, will find out within the next fortnight whether his test is confirmed through an analysis of the B sample.

Three other US athletes have now been named as testing positive for THG but await B sample test results: Kevin Toth, the world's leading shot putter this year; Regina Jacobs, the 39-year-old who broke the world indoor 1500m record this year before beating Kelly Holmes to gold at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham; and the hammer thrower John McEwen. Two other US athletes who have tested positive for THG have yet to be named.

Ljungqvist said the IAAF had been "directly or indirectly" informed of between six and eight modafinil cases.