Rodgers fails drugs test after having 'energy drink with a stimulant in it'

US sprinter Mike Rodgers was third in this year's world rankings but has tested positive for a banned substance (afp/getty images)

Another one bites the dust. After news on Thursday that the Jamaican sprinter Steve Mullings had tested positive for a masking agent, it was announced yesterday that the former US champion Mike Rodgers had dome the same for a banned stimulant.

The pair had been standing in third (Mullings, with 9.80sec) and fourth (Rodgers, with 9.85sec) on the world ranking list for the 100m this year. At this rate, with Tyson Gay on the injured list, Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell could be playing eeny, meeny, miny, mo when the World Championship title is on the line in Daegu, South Korea, on Sunday week.

Rodgers, runner-up to Britain's Dwain Chambers in the 60m final at the World Indoor Championships in Doha last year, tested positive after competing at a meeting in Lignano, Italy, on 19 July. "Mike made a mistake," his agent, Tony Campbell, said. "He went to a club with some friends in Italy and he thought he was drinking a Red Bull but he got one of those energy drinks that had a stimulant in it."

With Powell topping the world rankings with 9.78sec, Bolt has pushed down to equal sixth after Olympic silver medallist Richard Thompson clocked a Trinidadian record of 9.85sec in Port of Spain on Saturday.