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.

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