NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Sotomayor fails doping test, loses gold

Cuban World high jump record holder Javier Sotomayor failed a doping test after winning the gold in his event at the Pan-American Games, Pan American Sports Association (PASO) president Mario Vazquez Rana said.

Vazquez Rana said Sotomayor, 31, tested positive for cocaine after claiming his fourth consecutive Pan American high jump gold medal on Friday.

Sotomayor became the fourth athlete found guilty of doping violations at the Games and the third gold medal winner.

As in the previous cases, he will now lose the medal.

''We have to announce that Sotomayor has been stripped of his gold medal,'' said Vazquez Rana. He said further sanctions, if any, would be determined by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF).

Paso medical commission chairman Eduardo De Rose said 200 nanograms, or 200 parts per million, of cocaine were found in Sotomayor's urine sample.

De Rose said cocaine is considered a stimulant but would not say whether he thought Sotomayor was a cocaine user or whether the substance might have been contained in medicine.

Vazquez Rana, however, commented: ''The response of the (Cuban) delegation was that the athlete consumed a tea and that there was something contained in that for a stomach ailment. I think this might have been a mistake from his physician.

''It was a great surprise to see someone the likes of Sotomayor in doping.''

Sotomayor had complained of a bad back after Friday's event.

Until losing the medal, Sotomayor had been the only athletics competitor to win individual gold medals at four consecutive Pan American Games.

He set World records in 1988, 1989, when he became the first man to clear eight feet, and in 1993. Sotomayor was Olympic champion at Barcelona in 1992 and World outdoor champion in 1993 and 1997.

In previous doping cases at the Games, Canada was stripped of the roller-hockey gold medal when goalkeeper Steve Vezina failed a test last week, while the Dominican Republic lost its only gold medal when Juana Rosario arrendel also failed a test after winning the women's high jump.

Mexico's Ray Martinez was also considered to have failed after refusing to take a test following his team's bronze medal match with Canada in baseball.

Two other doping violations have recently rocked the athletics world.

Britain's former Olympic 100 meters champion Linford Christie and American sprinter Dennis Mitchell, have both been suspended in the last two days for doping violations.

British governing body UK Athletes said that the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) had suspended Christie after he tested positive for metabolites of the steroid nandrolone at an indoor meet in Dortmund, Germany, on February 13.

Mitchell was suspended for two years on Tuesday after the arbitration panel of the IAAF ruled he was guilty. Mitchell, 33, was tested at his Florida home and an analysis showed abnormal levels of the banned hormone testosterone.

But an American hearing last December found Mitchell not guilty of a doping offence and allowed him to continue competing.

The IAAF said the 1992 Olympic 100 meters bronze medalist would be suspended from April 1, 1998 - the date of the original test - to March 31, 2000. All performances achieved by Mitchell during that period were declared void and he will miss this month's World Championships in Seville.

UNI