Wada boss defends Bolt

Reuters

LIGHTNING BOLT: Usain Bolt before his world record-breaking 200 metres run at the Beijing Olympics.

Relevant offers

Olympics 2008

Amputee barred from Beijing Games Fans to face fines, jail over fake Olympic goods Food safety an Olympic challenge for Beijing Games Beijing school grooms girls to award Olympic medals Phelps starts foundation with Olympic bonus Oprah throws party for US Olympic medalists Bolt faces showdown with Powell and Gay Powell equals second fastest 100m ever Hurdler out to prove win was no fluke Bolt inspires Powell to target 9.59 seconds

World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) director general David Howman says the Americans seemingly building a doping case against Usain Bolt should look at themselves first.

Bolt, 23, has come under scrutiny since his triple gold, triple world record performances on the track at the Beijing Olympics, winning the 100m-200m double plus gold in the 4x100m relay.

Part of the pressure comes from the fact Jamaica has been slow to set up its own anti-doping programme but Howman, a New Zealander, dismissed that.

"Sometimes these doubts are cast but I would suggest some Americans could look at themselves first. They had cheats in 2000 [Marion Jones] and cheats in 2004 so they think no one wins without cheating.

"Why is the emphasis on that fellow and not, for example, on [eight gold medal winner] Michael Phelps? Both those guys are just freakish athletes."

Howman said Bolt had been tested many times and said the innuendo being directed against the Jamaican has a lot to do with the perception Jamaica doesn't have an adequate anti-doping agency. It's been written that Jamaica opened it's anti-doping agency only last week but Howman dismissed that, saying: "I went down there to open it in 2005 but since then there hasn't been the political will to fund it.

"But he [Bolt] has been tested many times."

Asked if the United States' relative failures in track and field could be attributed to a much stronger anti-doping programme in that country, Howman was politic.

"It's not specifically America. What you've seen is the fight against doping has resulted in a lot of athletes, who might not have previously got on the podium, now getting there.

"Relatively clean countries like Great Britain and Australia are now coming through."

The absence of many Russian athletes because of doping violations was a talking point before these Games and Howman said over 60 qualified athletes from various countries had missed the Games because of doping violations in the leadup period, which evened the playing field.

Five members of the Russian track and field Olympic squad, and seven in total, were suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) after an investigation found urine samples did not match DNA tests for the athletes who claimed to have submitted them.

And Bulgaria was forced to withdraw its weightlifting team from the Games after several members returned positive tests.

The Beijing Games have been one of the cleanest and least controversial in recent years and Howman said that was due to a big push from Wada to get governments around the world to sign up to the Copenhagen Convention, which is a commitment to implement Wada's anti-doping code. Since its inception in 2005, post-Athens, 93 countries, including New Zealand, have signed on with another 99 saying they intend to do so.

A total of 175 countries out of the 200-plus at the Olympics have recognised anti-doping programmes in place.

- © Fairfax NZ News