Estonia to host Gatlin comeback

Raleigh, North Carolina: US sprinter Justin Gatlin will return from a four-year doping ban with two races in Estonia next month, he said on Monday.

Gatlin will launch his comeback with a 100 metres race at Rakvere, Estonia, on August 3 and will run again five days later in Tallinn, the 2004 Olympic 100 metres champion said in a telephone interview from Atlanta.

"It's a relief," said Gatlin, who has not run a competitive race since June 2006. "It definitely comes earlier than I thought it would."

The 28-year-old regained his eligibility on Sunday after serving a four-year ban for a 2006 positive test for the male sex hormone testosterone and its precursors.

Many expected him to have difficulty finding races because of a Euro Meetings recommendation not to invite athletes who bring disrepute to the sport.

Warm welcome

But organisers of the Estonian meetings, which are not members of the Euro group, said they would welcome Gatlin.

That left Gatlin scrambling to replace a lost passport before he, his mother and a coach leave for Europe this week.

"He has worked so hard to get back out there," said Jeanette Gatlin of her son.

Gatlin described the comeback races as some of the most important of his career.

"I just want to have a good show and a good standing so people will say, ‘He looks good,'" said Gatlin, who has been training with veteran sprint coach Loren Seagrove.

"It will be right up there on the same list with my world championships and Olympics," the 2005 world double sprint champion added. "If I had to put them all on a bulletin board in my room or a trophy case, the photo of my first race back will, if successful, be just like that."

Meanwhile, Europe's two fastest men were in action late yesterday on the opening day of the European championships as Briton Dwain Chambers and France's Christophe Lemaitre lined up in the heats of the 100 metres.

The 20-year-old Lemaitre is top of the European rankings for both the 100 metres and 200 metres having hit form at just the right time for the championships in Barcelona, the scene of the emblematic 1992 Olympic Games.

Breaking barriers

Lemaitre has his sights on matching Francis Obikwelu's 100 metres and 200 metres sprint double four years ago in Gothenburg, after breaking the 10-second barrier in the 100 metres earlier this month with a time of 9.98 seconds.

It was the first time an athlete of European origin had gone under the magical ten seconds barrier.

The 100 metres will be far from a two-man race with Norway's Jaysuma Saidy Ndure in the reckoning as is Lematre's compatriot Martial Mbandjock.