Justin Gatlin to be investigated for doping after media expose

American athlete Justin Gatlin after performing in a past event [PHOTO: COURTESY]

Former world 100 metres champion and US sprinter Justin Gatlin is at the centre of what could turn out to be another possible doping scandal, if the investigations by UK-based media, Telegraph is to go by.

The media carried out an investigation that could incriminate Gatlin’s inner circle of team members manning his fitness as well as himself.

Reporters are said to have visited the Sprinter’s home in Florida where he trains and met his team members. While disguised as members of a production company, they told Gatlin’s coach and athletics agent that they were looking for performance enhancing drugs for a film production exercise.

The journalists went ahead to record a confessional of Gatlin’s coach, Dennis Mitchell who is also a former Olympic gold medalist and athletics agent Robert Wagner, giving blow-by-blow account of how doping can go unnoticed in the modern world of athletics.

With a deal looking in sight, the UK media further reveals that a doctor from Austria was to be involved in sending the products, which were worth $250,000.

But in a quick rejoinder seeking to clear the air, the Independent indicates that legal representatives of the American athlete gave a statement rubbishing the possibility that Gatlin may have been involved in doping. As a matter of fact, they pointed out that ‘he has never tested positive’ against any substance.

Bodies such as the Athletics Integrity Unit and the International Associations of Athletics Federations have opened up the investigation into the matter to assess whether Gatlin may have been doping after being banned on two occasions, 2001 and 2006.