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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 6:50 a.m., Thursday, January 22, 2009

Track & field: British runners face fines for missed doping tests

By ROBERT MILLWARD
Associated Press

LONDON — British track and field athletes will be ineligible to compete for their country for a year after serving doping bans and will be fined for missing tests.

Tanni Grey-Thompson, a multiple winner of Paralympic gold medals who chaired a review panel into Britain's anti-doping regulations, announced 22 recommendations today. UK Athletics chief executive Niels de Vos said all had been accepted.

"We will adopt all of the 22 recommendations, which fulfill my original objectives of tightening up our rules and procedures to ensure absolute clarity among all athletes as to the consequences of taking performance-enhancing drugs," De Vos said.

Among the major changes, athletes returning from a drug ban will have to serve a one-year "quarantine" period in which they can't compete on a British team until they prove they are clean.

"The recommendations made by this review mean that any athlete stupid enough to do so will not only destroy their career as an athlete, but also any future career in the sport as an administrator or coach," De Vos said. "The deterrent just got much stronger."

Edwin Moses, a two-time Olympic 400-meter hurdles champion from the United States, and former 110-meter hurdler Colin Jackson of Britain also served on the panel.

De Vos said the amount of the financial penalties for missing doping tests had not been decided.

The new moves will prevent a repeat of the turmoil caused when sprinter Dwain Chambers ended a two-year doping suspension and went straight back into competition. Last year, Chambers won the 100 meters at the British Olympic Trials but lost a legal ruling that prevented him from competing in Beijing.