Pubdate: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: Elliott Almond TEST REVEALS COCAINE Cuban Track Star Sotomayor Faces 2-year Ban WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- In the latest, and perhaps most devastating, blow to Cuba's controversial two weeks at the Pan American Games, national hero Javier Sotomayor tested positive for cocaine, officials announced Wednesday. Sotomayor, 31, the only man to clear 8 feet in the high jump and one of Cuba's most popular athletes of all time, is expected to be suspended for two years. He will lose his eligibility for next month's track and field World Championships and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney unless he wins a reprieve through appeal. On a bizarre day when the focus fell squarely on Cuban actions away from the competition, the island's sports leaders denounced the drug test, saying the world's greatest high jumper was sabotaged. While about 30 demonstrators outside a downtown Winnipeg media center carried placards protesting the treatment of Cuba's athletes, the sports officials said Sotomayor never took cocaine. They suggested the substance had been planted in something he ate or drank but failed to provide evidence to support such claims. Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) officials said a Cuban delegate told them Sotomayor drank a South American tea with cocoa leaves for a stomach ailment. But the man who won an unprecedented fourth consecutive Pan American Games high-jump title Friday evening would have needed to drink one liter of tea within 30 minutes of the competition to show the amount of cocaine drug testers found -- 200 parts per million -- said Eduardo de Rose, president of PASO's medical commission. When asked how to explain the presence of a banned substance, Mario Granda, a Cuban medical officer in Winnipeg, said: "We have no explanation whatsoever." PASO President Mario Vazquez Rana said an elite, veteran athlete such as Sotomayor should have known better than to ingest a potentially banned substance. "Sotomayor is not a child anymore," Rana said. "He knows that anything you put in your mouth you should check first." Drug testers said they can find cocaine traces if the drug is taken within four or five days of the analysis. Cuban physicians said Sotomayor drank a concoction with cocoa leaves about 10 days before the Pan American Games for medicinal purposes, but it did not cause the positive result. They said they are analyzing everything the high jumper ate and drank in Winnipeg at a Havana drug-testing laboratory. While the Pan Am result had stunning ramifications for track and field on a day the IAAF suspended Linford Christie, 1992 Olympic champion, for suspicion of steroid use, it carried political overtones for the tiny island nation led by President Fidel Castro. Fighting an image-damaging rash of defections at these games, Cuban officials have criticized organizers for lack of security, and local papers for making light of the situation. "Unfortunately, the Cuban delegation has been swamped from non-medical doping with security and intolerance," Granda said. Athletes are some of Cuba's most important assets. Despite its size, Cuba has been one of the strongest Pan American sporting nations, rivaling the United States in medals won. By competing internationally, Cuban athletes represent a country that has not had diplomatic ties with the United States since 1957. They are expected to be a shining example of how Castro's socialism has succeeded. Sotomayor took it a step further by dominating an event once ruled by Americans. As a result, Sotomayor's case would be considered a serious breech for a country that has struggled economically since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Cold War politics. Under such a backdrop, catching an athlete of Sotomayor's stature for a recreational drug goes beyond the embarrassment Ben Johnson caused Canada when the gold-medal winning sprinter tested positive for a banned steroid at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Steadfast in their refusal to accept the result, Cuban officials vigorously defended Sotomayor, who could not be reached for comment. "He is such a gentleman," said Rodrigo Alvarez Cambra, director of the orthopedic complex of Cuba. "To us, it is almost impossible he would take this substance. He has told us he has not taken this substance. That is why we know this is a manipulation." Granda called Sotomayor a "flag bearer for the struggle against doping." "His dignity is much above and beyond any results given in any laboratory," Granda said. "He is an innocent man." Granda said Sotomayor's fourth gold medal "will be in the hearts of all Pan Americans who love you and trust you." PASO officials stripped Sotomayor of the gold medal and awarded it to silver medalist Mark Boswell of Toronto. Sotomayor was seen in Cuba on Tuesday night at a rally for the gold medal-winning baseball team and stood beside Castro, the Associated Press reported. His place in track and field seems less certain. - --- MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto