KINGSTON, May 23 – Jamaica's 2001 World Championships 200 metre silver medalist Christopher Williams has been banned for two years, according to the IAAF website.
Williams tested positive for an amphetamine at a meeting in Spain in July 2009.
Williams said Saturday he took sleeping tablets and used an inhaler on his way to the meeting, and indicated the medications on a form filled out for doping control.
He said he was disappointed with the two-year ban for a drug that wasn’t a steroid, especially since several athletes who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs got the same suspension.
"I have a career of 10 years and if I was taking performance-enhancing drugs my muscles would be gone already and the joints would be getting weak. …there are a lot of athletes who prove that," he said.
Williams also blamed the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) for the way they handled the situation, saying they had not kept him properly informed after they learned he was to be sanctioned.
Williams is the seventh Jamaican to test positive since last year.
Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson, Allodin Fothergill, Sheri-Ann Brooks and Lanceford Spence were banned in 2009, while Bobby-Gaye Wilkins, who tested positive at the World Indoors in March is awaiting a ruling.