18 Jul 2013

Physio hits back at doping allegations

1:55 pm on 18 July 2013

Asafa Powell's physiotherapist has hit back at claims from the Jamaican sprinter that he was to blame for a positive dope test, maintaining that he did not provide him or compatriot Sherone Simpson with banned drugs.

Powell and Simpson were among five Jamaican athletes who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs at the country's national trials last month and are currently under investigation in Italy for doping.

The revelations -- and a separate positive test for US sprinter Tyson Gay -- have cast a shadow over athletics, just a month before from the sport's world championships in Moscow.

Powell and Simpson's agent, Paul Doyle, has pointed the finger at the athletes' physio Chris Xuereb, suggesting that contaminated food supplements were to blame.

But Xuereb, who is also under investigation in Italy, says he has done nothing wrong and the athletes were looking to make him a scapegoat.

Xuereb says he's had no dealings with the three other Jamaicans who tested positive at last month's trial and said it was "time the athletes took responsibility for their doping" instead of blaming others.

Powell, a 4x100m relay gold medallist at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, is one of the four fastest men over 100m in history.

Simpson won gold for Jamaica in the 4x100m relay at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and silver in the event last year in London.

She also won 100m silver in Beijing.