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Tuesday, September 2 White scheduled to race Friday in Brussels Associated Press |
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LONDON -- Track's world governing body hopes to determine this week whether the drug American sprinter Kelli White should be classified as a performance enhancer.
If so, and White is found to have committed a doping offense, she could be stripped of her two gold medals from the track and field world championship.
White is scheduled to race Friday at the Golden League meet in Brussels.
"We will clarify this before Friday whether in our opinion she can run or not,'' Arne Ljungvist, vice president and anti-doping chief of the International Association of Athletics Federations, said Tuesday.
White tested positive for the stimulant modafinil after her victory in the 100 meters on Aug. 24. White said she used the prescription drug for a sleep disorder, and passed a drug test after winning the 200 meters.
Under IAAF rules, the penalty for use of light stimulants, such as ephedrine, is disqualification and a public warning. For harder stimulants, such as amphetamines, the sanction is disqualification and a two-year ban.
"On one hand, it is a substance which in clinical practice is a replacement to amphetamine which is a very strong stimulant,'' Ljungvist about the drug White used. "But it can also be a mild ephedrinelike adrenal effect. It falls somewhere in between the two classes.''
White, the first American woman to sweep both sprints at a world championships, also plans to compete in the Grand Prix final in Monaco on Sept. 13-14 and an invitational meet in Moscow on Sept. 20. |
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