US athletics chief rejects make public claim

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Sydney: US athletics head Craig Masback rejected on Wednesday a call by White House drugs chief General Barry McCaffrey to release immediately the names of all American athletes who have tested positive for drugs.

In a letter to USA Track and Field, McCaffrey urged Masback to "immediately make public the full accounting of results management for the tests in question".

McCaffrey's request followed revelations this week that world shot put champion C J Hunter, the husband of Olympic 100 metres champion Marion Jones, had tested positive four times this year for nandrolone.

In his reply Masback, the chief executive officer for USA Track and Field, said American law, the US Olympic Committee (USOC) and his own organisation's rules required athletes to be treated as innocent until proven guilty.

Masback said the majority of cases still in process involved substances for which athletes had medical waivers, such as asthma.

"The next greatest number of 'unresolved' matters involved so-called 'cold medicines' positives, which even if the athlete is found guilty will only result in a public warning involved and the remaining cases will be adjudicated under our system as soon as we are provided with the necessary documentation and laboratory analysis by the IOC laboratories, the IAAF (International Amateur Athletic Federation) or the USOC," the letter said.

"We are also proud that USA Track and Field has tested more athletes for more substances for a longer period of time than any other sports organisation."

Masback told reporters he did not know how many cases were still pending in the United States.

"We are not involved in a cover-up process," he said. "In the last two years we have had five B tests which did not confirm the A test.

"We are not going to suspend people and publicly shame them after the result of an A test."



(c) Reuters Limited.