Asafa Powell, Simpson point finger at physio: Agent

Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell and his team-mate Sherone Simpson are blaming their new physiotherapist after they tested positive for a banned stimulant, Britain’s Daily Telegraph said on Tuesday, quoting the athletes’ manager.

Both athletes have pointed to contaminated food supplements as the reason why they failed the tests, which have cast a cloud over the build-up to the athletics world championships in Moscow next month and put sprinting in the spotlight. Italian police reportedly brought Xuereb in for questioning and raided his base on Monday, although the country’s news agency ANSA said no arrest had been made. ‘Asafa and Sherone have been working with WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) to arrange this police raid, so to speak,’ he said.

‘Once we knew of the positive test, we realised that Asafa and Sherone were the only two athletes in the group who had been given new supplements by this phsyio that they are working with.’ ‘Asafa’s had probably 150 to 200 clear tests in the past,’ added he.