Another Graham-Coached Track Athlete Tests Postive For Steroids, By: Christopher Cornell

August 25, 2006

New York, NY (AHN) - It seems track coach Trevor Graham isn't the best person to be associated with these days. Another one of Graham's track athletes has tested positive for banned performance enhancing drugs. Sprinter LaTasha Jenkins tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in July.

Jenkins became the 11th Graham-coached athlete to test positive for performance enhancing drugs.

Jenkins' "A" sample tested positive for nandrolone in July. The sample has not gone through a "B" test yet. If the second "B" test comes out positive, Jenkins faces a minimum two-year ban from competition.

Jenkins and Justin Gatlin, the former Olympic 100-meter champion are the most recent Graham-coached athletes to test positive for performance enhancers. Gatlin, the co-world record holder in the 100 meters, tested positive for testosterone and other steroids at the Kansas Relays on April 22. Gatlin chose not to contest the results of his test and was promptly banned from track and field for a maximum of eight years.

Jenkins, 28, had her best run of the year when she finished third in the 200 meters at the U.S. track and field championships in Indianapolis in late June. In 2001, she was the silver medal winner in the 200 at the world indoor championships and the bronze winner in the same event at the world outdoors.

She announced her retirement in 2003 but returned to the sport the next year.

Graham, former coach of Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, has been banned from using U.S. Olympic training facilities. He's also recently been banned from the Nike Headquarters.

The shoe company terminated its contract with Trevor Graham and suspended its contract with Justin Gatlin until further notice.

Graham operates a team of around 10 track and field athletes out of Raleigh called Sprint Capitol USA. He helped bring about the federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) three years ago when he mailed a syringe containing 'the clear' to the USADA. 'The clear' was a specially designed, undetectable steroid created and manufactured by BALCO. At the 2004 Athens Olympics he admitted to mailing the drug to the USADA.