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Merritt for 21 months, but Daegu and London under question

20.10.2010 World

The American Arbitration Association on Friday reduced the suspension of 400 m world and olympic gold medalist LaShawn Merritt.

He will be eligible to return to competition on July 27, 2011. In reducing the suspension, the AAA Panel accepted LaShawn Merritt’s explanation for the positive test that he issued in April 2010, and commended Mr. Merritt for coming forward with the cause of his inadvertent positive test as soon as he discovered it.  The AAA Panel also noted that he had no intention to dope, no intention to gain a competitive advantage, and in fact gained no competitive advantage from his inadvertent use of the Extenze product and his conduct “was exemplary and demonstrated tremendous character in making what had to be a painful and humiliating confession.” Official release says. IOC already confirmed for Reuters he will not be able to compete at London Games as his ban was 21 months. The IOC rule states that any athlete sanctioned for six months or longer will be banned from participation in the next edition of the Games (by the way that applies also to recent 6 months ban of Shelly-Ann Fraser). Also despite beeing title defender for Daegu and so beeing wild card holder it might be not so easy to compete at IAAF World Championships 2011. USATF always required from wild card holders the participation at national championships which will be staged before his ban ends. But he might be lucky to get invitation to meetings as the recommendation of Euromeetings says athletes with bans two years or more should not be competing. Merritt failed the tests in October and December of last year and January of this year and admitted using an over-the-counter male enhancement product containing DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) and pregnenolone. Insidethegames writes that, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may appeal against the decision because it was short of the two-year ban they demand in such cases.


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