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Friday, August 25
IAAF opens door for Olympic champ Baumann
Associated Press
LONDON -- Cuban high jump champion Javier Sotomayor was
cleared Wednesday to compete in the Olympics when track and field's
ruling body cut his suspension for cocaine use in half.
The International Amateur Athletic Federation cited
"exceptional circumstances" for the move, pointing to his
previously clean drug record and humanitarian work.
"I am happy, but not totally satisfied," Sotomayor told The
Associated Press outside the Karl Marx theater in Havana before the ceremony Wednesday night for the Cuban athletes participating at Sydney.
"I want to keep trying to clean up my image," he said. "That
is my goal."
Sotomayor's coach said from Havana that while the high jumper is
pleased he can compete in the Sydney Games, he is unhappy the IAAF
did not exonerate him from the accusation of cocaine use.
The decision "assumes that he had consumed that disgusting
substance," Guillermo de la Torre told The Associated Press from
Latinoamericano Stadium, where Sotomayor was to train Wednesday.
The IAAF also opened the door for former Olympic 5,000-meter
champion Dieter Baumann to compete in Sydney during a special
meeting at its Monaco headquarters to handle pending drug cases.
It sent Baumann's case to arbitration and said he was "free to
compete" until an arbitration hearing, which could be held in
early September. The Sydney Games start Sept. 15.
Sotomayor, a two-time world champion and 1992 Olympic gold
medalist, is the only jumper to clear 8 feet. He was stripped of
his gold medal at last year's Pan American Games after testing
positive for cocaine.
Five weeks ago, an IAAF arbitration panel overturned a ruling by
the Cuban Athletics Federation that allowed him to continue
competing domestically and in other nonsanctioned meets.
The 32-year-old high jumper denied using drugs, and Cuban
President Fidel Castro and the country's track federation claimed
his urine samples had been manipulated.
"Exceptional circumstances take into account the career of
Sotomayor, the fact that during 15 years he underwent 300 doping
tests, all negative," IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said.
"There were also his acts as a member of the IAAF athletic
commission, many humanitarian considerations and the fact this is
his last Olympics."
The council also agreed to send Baumann's case to arbitration
but declined to suspend him, meaning he can compete pending the
outcome of the hearing. No date was set.
Reineri said the council "strongly urged" the arbitration be
held before the Olympics, although a source close to the world body
said that "was unlikely."
Baumann, the '92 Olympic 5,000-meter champ, was banned for two
years for a positive test last fall for the anabolic steroid
nandrolone. He was cleared two weeks ago by the German federation's
legal panel, which ruled there had been irregularities in the
collection, storage and delivery of his urine samples.
Baumann has insisted he was innocent, saying he had been the
target of a plot when traces of nandrolone were found in a
toothpaste tube he supposedly used.
The council also agreed to send the case of Hungarian 400-meter
hurdler Judit Szekeres to arbitration.
"All reasonable effort will be made to ensure that both cases
will be considered at the beginning of September," the IAAF said.
The IAAF also set Aug. 14 to hear the positive doping cases of
banned British athletes Linford Christie, Doug Walker and Gary
Cadogan.
The three Britons were cleared by UK Athletics, the national
governing body, after testing positive for nandrolone. However,
they were later banned by the IAAF pending arbitration.
The arbitration for the three is somewhat meaningless.
Former world and Olympic champion Christie has retired. Walker,
the European 200-meter champion, said this week he would skip the
British trials because he's not ready for the Olympics. Cadogan, a
400 hurdler, has retired.
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