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Edwards out of Olympics after doping
appeal fails
ATHENS 2004
World 100 meters champion Torri Edwards
is out of the Athens Olympics after having her appeal against a two-year
doping ban rejected.
The American sprinter failed in her bid to be reinstated to the US Olympic
team after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected her appeal
against the ban here on Tuesday.
Veteran two-time Olympic 100m champion Gail Devers (news - web sites)
replaces her in the 100m which begins on Friday while the 200m place goes to
Lashaunte'a Moore.
Edwards, 27, tested positive for the prohibited stimulant nikethamide at an
athletics meeting in Fort-de-France, Martinique in April.
Her management group said she was "devastated" by the ruling.
"In its decision, the CAS panel agreed that Torri is not a drug cheat and
that she 'has conducted herself with honesty, integrity, and character in
that she has not sought to gain any improper advantage or to cheat in any
way'," the statement from Hudson Smith International (HSI) said.
The American authorities had imposed a two-year ban after the sport's
governing body the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
had considered there were no exceptional circumstances exonerating the
athlete in this case.
IAAF spokesman Nick Davies welcomed the CAS ruling. "The IAAF is very happy
that CAS have decided that our doping review board made the right decision,"
he told AFP. "Her team were negligent. It is very important for athletics as
this decision proves that athletes must assume their responsibilities."
Edwards defended herself by saying the stimulant came from a product,
coramine glucose, that a physical therapist from HSI purchased which did not
list nikethamide as an ingredient.
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