Two major competitions debuted in new formats. The IAAF Diamond League – a worldwide expansion on the European-centred IAAF Golden League concept – saw a schedule of fourteen one-day meetings with some of the sport's most prominent athletes centrally contracted to a track and field series for the first time.[2] The second competition was the renamed IAAF Continental Cup (formerly World Cup) which had its format simplified: previously a contest between several countries and continents, it comprised only four teams (Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia/Oceania).[3]
American sprinter LaShawn Merritt was banned from competition for 21 months.
The highest profile doping case in 2010 was that of 400m Olympic and World Champion LaShawn Merritt. He failed three out-of-competition tests in October and December 2009, and January 2010, testing positive for Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on each occasion. He claimed that he had inadvertently ingested the substance via an over the counter sex enhancement drug he was using at the time (ExtenZe).[9] Initially set for a two-year ban,[10] he received a reduced 21-month suspension from October 2010 to July 2012 as a result of his co-operation with anti-doping authorities. However, the seriousness of the doping substance meant he was automatically banned from defending his title at the 2012 London Olympics.[11]
A major investigation by the Guardia Civil into doping in Spain, known as Operación Galgo, began in April 2010 and made headline news in December following a number of arrests.[12][13]Marta Domínguez, world steeplechase champion and vice president of the Spanish Athletics Federation, was implicated in the blood doping ring.[14]Manuel Pascua Piqueras, coach to a number of prominent runners, admitted to doping his athletes, while Alemayehu Bezabeh (the 2009 European Cross Country Champion) admitted to using banned substances.[15]
Shelly-Ann Fraser received a six-month suspension for using a banned painkiller.
Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser received a six-month ban after a positive test for pain relief narcotic oxycodone at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting. Her coach Stephen Francis, who had the painkiller on prescription for his kidney stones, gave the banned substance to his athlete to relieve her toothache.[16][17]
Another sprinter Laverne Jones-Ferrette ran the fastest 60 metres in a decade in February, but was absent from outdoor competition in 2010. This was later explained by the revelation that she had failed a drug test for clomiphene on February 16. The substance can be used as a complement to steroid cycles, but can also act as a fertility drug and Jones-Ferrette (who announced her pregnancy in November) claimed this was the intended usage. She was banned from competition for six months, lasting from April to September, and lost her silver medal from the World Indoor Championships.[18]Bobby-Gaye Wilkins won a relay medal for Jamaica at the same championships, but she was also stripped of her medal after testing positive for andarine – a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM).[19]
Retired American sprinters Ramon Clay and Crystal Cox received retrospective bans from the United States Anti-Doping Agency due to their steroid usage relating to the BALCO scandal period from 2001 to 2004. Cox was stripped of her Olympic relay gold medal as a result.[22][23] Former Jamaican runner Raymond Stewart was given a life ban from coaching for trafficking and administering banned substances as part of an ongoing investigation. Olympic Bahraini sprinter Roqaya Al-Gassra was banned for two years.[24] Other prominent athletes to receive suspensions included South American triple jump champion Johana Triviño (two years for stanozolol), Asian indoor champion Munira Saleh (life ban for second violation with stanozolol),[25] and 2010 CAC Games medallist Zudikey Rodríguez (methylhexanamine).[26]
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