KINGSTON, Jamaica, November 22 – Disgraced Jamaican sprinter Steve Mullings received a life ban from athletics by a three-man disciplinary committee from the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) on Monday.
The decision came four days after Mullings, who turns 29 later this month, was found guilty of an anti-doping violation by the same panel.
Mullings was found guilty of taking the masking agent furosimide, a powerful diuretic that showed up in his urine sample after he finished third in the 100-meter final at the Jamaican national championships on June 24.
That marked the second failed drug test for Mullings, who was banned for two years in 2004 after testing positive for an elevated level of testosterone, also at the Jamaican championships, while a student at Mississippi State University in the United States.
The panel of attorney Lennox Gayle, football administrator Peter Prendergast and Dr. Japheth Ford had delayed their final verdict in the case to Monday while they awaited details of the prior doping case.
Mullings, who is based in Florida and trains alongside US sprint star Tyson Gay, won the 200m crown at last June’s Jamaican meet but was not part of the Jamaican team that competed at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea in late August and early September.
Mullings, who did not speak to journalists, had earlier said he expected the worst from the Jamaican panel and planned an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).
Gayle, chairman of the panel, said Thursday that the panel spent two weeks studying the evidence.
“It is a unanimous verdict that Mr. Mullings is guilty of having furosemide in both his A and B samples,” Gayle said.
