The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) is to review the Ben Johnson case, a spokesman for the organisation said yesterday. The spokesman, IAAF press chief Giorgio Reineri, said the IAAF Council decided to set up a three-man sub-commission after Johnson petitioned the body to look again at his 1993 lifetime ban for excessive testosterone levels, his second failed drug test.
A decision is expected to be presented to the IAAF Council meeting which will be held in August, before the World Athletics Championships.
A Canadian adjudicator ruled last month that there were "procedural errors" surrounding Johnson's second ban in 1993 and said he should be reinstated in Canada.
Athletics Canada, the sport's national governing body, accepted the ruling and supported the disgraced sprinter's petition.
Johnson won the 1988 Olympic 100 metres title but was then stripped of his gold medal and handed a four-year ban from the sport after testing positive for steroids.
Nevertheless, Johnson has said that if he gets reinstatement he will still not represent Canada, unless the federation apologises to him. He has suggested he will instead try to run for Jamaica, his country of birth.
Brid Dennehy has been selected to fill the 5,000 metres vacancy in the women's team for Ireland's Europa Cup assignment in Finland on June 5th and 6th, writes Peter Byrne.
The Bandon athlete, who now lives in Florida, was summoned to join the team after Catherina McKiernan had declined an invitation to run her first major track race in two years.
McKiernan has yet to decide the date and venue of her next race, but it is likely to be in Ireland.
Dennehy, a controversial omission from Ireland's Olympic squad in Atlanta three years ago, was a surprising winner of the National Cross Country Championship at Stranorlar in February.
