Gatlin a stain on athletics

There’s an almighty row taking place over how long drugs cheats should be banned for. It has arisen because of the decision to make Justin Gatlin a finalist in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Athlete of the Year awards.

Gatlin, an Olympic sprint gold medallist in 2004, has twice been suspended for taking banned drugs, in 2001 and 2006.

The American served a four-year suspension from 2006 till 2010, but now, on the wrong side of 30, has struck the best form of his life.

He is coached by American Dennis Mitchell, who in the 1990s was also suspended for taking banned drugs.

During 2014, Gatlin was unbeaten and recorded six of the seven fastest 100m times of the year. He even beat the mighty Usain Bolt.

Many inside athletics resent the fact that Gatlin has even been allowed back in the sport after he was caught twice.

Now he has been named as one of the finalists in the Athlete of the Year award, which has prompted German discus thrower Robert Harting to ask to be withdrawn from the list of finalists.

‘‘I find my nomination great, yet I stand for it alongside a known doping offender. For that reason I have asked to be removed from the list,’’ Harting said.

Sebastian Coe, who will next year become president of the IAAF, said he had ‘‘big problems’’ with Gatlin’s nomination.

‘‘What would you say if I said I felt comfortable about it?’’ said Coe, who was one of the world’s greatest middle- distance runners. ‘‘You’d be surprised if I said I was sanguine about it.’’

The controversy has erupted just as a comprehensive study from the University of Oslo has revealed that muscles retain advantages given by anabolic steroids decades after they were taken.

That might explain how Gatlin, at 32, can run the fastest times of his career.

It also casts a shadow over the recent performances of other previously banned sprinters such as American Tyson Gay and Briton Dwain Chambers.

Coe said suspensions for drugs cheats needed to be longer.

‘‘The effect of anabolic steroids is cer- tainly not transient,’’ he said. ‘‘ Sanctions have to take into consideration the effect they [steroids] can have on a career even when the athlete is clean.’’

Briton Dai Greene, the 2011 400m hurdles world champion, agreed.

‘‘Gatlin is over the hill as far as sprinting is concerned. He should never be running these times, but he’s still doing it,’’ he said.

‘‘You have to look at his past and ask how it is still affecting him. Either he’s still taking performance-enhancing drugs or the ones he took are still doing a fantastic job.’’

Kristian Gundersen, professor of physiology at the University of Oslo, said the effects of taking steroids could be lifelong or at least last several decades.

‘‘Our data indicates the exclusion time [suspension] of two years is far too short. Even four years is too short,’’ he said.

‘‘If you exercise, or take anabolic steroids, you get more nuclei and bigger muscles. If you take away the steroids, you lose the muscle mass, but the nuclei remains inside the muscle fibres.’’

For his second doping offence, Gatlin was banned for eight years, but that penalty was halved by an arbitration panel.

There has been a move by the World Anti-Doping Agency to toughen penalties, from January 2015. A first major offence would incur a four-year suspension and a second offence would result in a life ban.

Meanwhile, cheats like Gatlin continue to compete and be lauded for their feats.

No wonder the clean athletes are up in arms.