US sprinter Montgomery faces life ban

Former world 100 metres record holder Tim Montgomery faces a life ban today when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) releases its decision on alleged doping offences by the US sprinter.

Montgomery has been accused of serious doping violations by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after a federal investigation into the BALCO laboratory in California. He has denied ever taking drugs.

BALCO head Victor Conte, who was sentenced to four months in prison in October after pleading guilty to steroid distribution, said last year he had supplied Montgomery and his partner, the triple Olympic champion Marion Jones, with the designer steroid THG, EPO and insulin.

In a separate television interview, Conte said he had witnessed Jones using steroids. Jones, who has not been charged with any doping offence, has denied the allegations.

Under new USADA rules Montgomery can be banned for a non-analytical positive, evidence of drug-taking other than positive test.

Michelle Collins, the 2003 indoor 200 metres champion, accepted a four-year ban this year after USADA said it had established beyond reasonable doubt that she had taken THG.

If Montgomery is banned by the independent Lausanne-based body, he will become the highest profile athlete to be suspended since Ben Johnson tested positive after winning the 1988 Olympics 100m final in world record time.

The Canadian was stripped of the gold medal and his time of 9.79 seconds was not recognised after a positive test for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.

Although several world 100 metres records have been broken since 1988, nobody had run faster than Johnson until Montgomery clocked 9.78 seconds at the 2002 Paris grand prix final.

The THG scandal erupted when coach Trevor Graham anonymously sent a syringe containing a new steroid to USADA.

Scientists determined the new drug was THG, a chemically related compound of the banned drug gestrinone designed to evade the testers.