United State’s Carmelita Jeter and Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce return to the track for the 200m at the 10th leg of the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco on Friday.
The duo reportedly walked out of a news conference on Thursday after the sprinters were asked about the atmosphere in their teams following recent failed doping tests for Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell.
Jeter and Fraser-Pryce had requested not to be quizzed about doping, ahead of Friday’s Herculis meeting in Monaco.
When they were, following a couple of benign questions, the pair responded by abruptly getting up and leaving the press conference.
Gay, who ran the fastest 100m time of the 2013 athletic season in June, was notified by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) last week that his ‘A’ sample from an out-of-competition test in May tested positive.
Powell, the former 100m record holder, and Sheronne Simpson, a three-time Olympic medalist tested positive for the banned stimulant oxiflorine at the Jamaican championships last month.
Olympic Champion Veronica Campbell-Brown tested positive for a banned diuretic in May. Discus throwers Allison Randall and Jamaica’s Traves Smickle have also recently failed dope tests.
Smickle, who competed at London 2012, returned a positive result after the Jamaican trials in June.
“I must take responsibility for whatever is found in my body,” the 21-year0old said.
Smickle became the fifth and the latest Jamaican athlete to test positive for a banned substance.
While Fraser-Campbell and Jeter shied away from doping, Justin Gatlin, who was suspended for four years after testing positive for a banned substance in 2006, dealt with issues of doping head on.
“You have to make sure you’re responsible for what’s going into your body and who’s around you,” Gatlin, a former Olympic and world champion said.
“It’s just life. That’s one thing I learn’t when everything happened with me. You got to deal with it. You got to move forward.
“The one thing I learnt about track and field is: It’s not about what you say, it’s about what you do.”
