Cuban high jump champion Javier Sotomayor was stripped of his gold medal at the Pan American Games on Wednesday after testing positive for cocaine in Winnipeg, Canada.
Sotomayor, the world-record holder and the only man to clear eight feet in the event, will be suspended for two years--knocking him out of this month's world championships and the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said Primo Nebiolo, president of the International Amateur Athletic Assn., track and field's governing body.
It is up to the Cuban federation to suspend Sotomayor. But Nebiolo said that if the Cubans do not suspend him for two years, the IAAF will.
"I am shocked. I cannot believe it. I am very surprised and upset, because I have great esteem for Sotomayor," Nebiolo said from Monte Carlo.
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British sprinter Linford Christie, the 1992 Olympic 100-meter champion who at 39 rarely competes, was suspended for suspicion of use of the steroid nandrolone.
The IAAF said a drug test taken during a February meet at Dortmund, Germany, suggested the presence of the steroid but also said Christie's sample is not regarded as a positive test.
"We cannot conclude the Christie case has been proved," IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said.
If it is, Christie, who coaches British sprinters, will receive at least a two-year suspension retroactive to the day after the drug test.
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Marion Jones won the 200 meters in 22.15 seconds at the Herculis track and field meet in Monte Carlo, to remain in contention for the $1-million Golden League jackpot.
Wilson Kipketer, Gabriela Szabo and Bernard Barmasai also won to stay in contention for the end-of-the-season prize for winning all seven races in the series. Kipketer won the 800 meters in 1 minute 42.57 seconds, Szabo won the 3,000 meters in 8:28.36 and Barmasai won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 7:58.99.
In a quick 200-meter race, Maurice Greene clocked his fastest time of the year, 19.92, to hold off a challenge from Namibian Frankie Fredericks, who was one hundredth of a second behind.
Pan American Games
