Cuban high jump legend Javier Sotomayor has been stripped of his gold medal at the Pan American Games after testing positive for cocaine.

Sotomayor, (31), is the current world record holder and world champion, and former Olympic champion having won gold in Barcelona in 1992. However the positive test will also almost certainly rule him out of the World Championships later this month in Seville.

The president of the Pan American Sports Organisation Mario Vazquez Rana said of the evidence of cocaine use: "To us it is a positive case of doping."

The women's high jump title at the games was forfeited on Tuesday when Dominican Republic high jumper Juana Arrendel tested positive and Canadian roller hockey goalkeeper Steve Vezina also failed a drug test, costing his team a gold medal.

Ben Johnson, meanwhile, has presented his case for reinstatement to the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) in the hope he will be allowed to compete at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The Canadian sprinter, who turns 38 in December, was stripped of his gold medal following a positive test for the anabolic steroid stanozolol after winning the 1988 Seoul Olympic 100 metres final in a world record time. Five years later he was banned for life after a second positive drugs test.

Johnson's lawyer has presented a submission to a special IAAF sub-commission which will report to the IAAF council in Seville on August 16th.