Athletics: A federal judge in the United States has blocked a bid by banned Olympic 100 metres champion Justin Gatlin to compete in this week's US athletics trials for the Beijing Games.
Judge Lacey Collier dissolved a 10-day restraining order that would have allowed the 26-year-old Gatlin to take part in the trials in Eugene, Oregon, starting on Friday. He also denied Gatlin's request for a preliminary injunction in the case.
Gatlin's attorney said the decision would be appealed to the US Court of Appeals in Atlanta later today.
In his ruling, Collier reluctantly denied Gatlin despite considering that the 26-year-old sprinter had been unfairly treated by those sporting organizations that sought to ban him.
"Mr Gatlin is being wronged, and the United States Courts have no power to right the wrong perpetrated upon one of its citizens," Collier's ruling stated.
Collier had been forced to concede that his court had no jurisdiction in any matter regarding an athlete's participation in the Olympic Games.
Gatlin lost his appeal to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport on June 6th, hoping to have his four-year suspension for drug doping to be cut by half — a judgment that would have enabled him to compete for a place on the US team for Beijing.
Gatlin was suspended for four years after a 2006 positive test for the male sex hormone testosterone.
The violation was ruled his second doping offence because the sprinter had also tested positive in 2001 for amphetamines that were part of a medication to treat Attention Deficit Disorder.