KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – The career of Jamaican sprinter Steve Mullings continued to dangle by a thread yesterday, following Thursday’s news his ‘B’ sample had also tested positive for an illegal substance. This follows last week’s news that Mullings’ ‘A’ sample had also tested positive, coming of the June’s National Championships here.
Mullings, the third fastest man in the world this year, now faces a life ban from the sport following a previous two-year drugs ban that caused him to miss the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The 28-year-old Mullings has protested his innocence and told Reuters yesterday he was unsure whether he would contest the results, even though he is expected to attend a hearing on Monday.
“What can I do? I’m going to go in front of the panel and say I never took the drug. But I don’t have the proof to say, ‘OK, it was vitamins’,” Mullings was quoted as saying.
“I’ve already gone through all my vitamins and there’s nothing in there. They say it was in my urine. That drug has to be prescribed.
“The people around me know I don’t take drugs, but it’s going to look bad on me because of 2004. Now it’s 2011 they said I was on drugs that I don’t even know of.”
Mullings had confirmed on Thursday that the ‘B’ sample tested at the INRS-Institute Armand-Frappier Research Centre in Quebec, Canada, had also returned positive.
The offending agent found in Mullings’ urine was furosemide, a powerful diuretic used widely used as a masking agent, which has been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Following last week’s announcement, Jamaican track and field authorities left Mullings out of the 50-member squad for the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea from August 27 to August 4.