| Hell no ! Says Montgomery To Returning Prize Money |
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Prabhjot Singh, 24x7 Updates
The recently banned US sprinter Tim Montgomery has declined to return his prize and appearance money to the IAAF as was ordered by the CAS. Montogomery and Gaines were yesterday handed out two year bans in the wake of using performance enhancing substances. The three-member arbitration panel had found "strong, indeed uncontroverted, evidence" for the same.
Montgomery later announced his retirement, ending speculation about whether he will return after his ban gets over in the summer of 2007 as was stated by his coach Steve Riddick, who said in an earlier statement "If he trains like he did last year and the following year he will be ready to run (in 2007)."
"I’m done," Montgomery said while announcing his retirement and added that he never knowingly used any banned substance and of ever telling White he was using the drug.
International track officials have said they intend to seek to recover Montgomery’s earnings. "Hell no," Montgomery told Reuters in a telephone call from his residence in Hampton, Virginia. But IAAF officials made it clear that they will under no circumstance let him off the hook. "The rules are clear," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said We will be asking for the money back."
Montgomery retaliated saying he had spent thousands of dollars in fighting the doping charges raised against him by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
"I spent six figures easy," he said.
"I spent a lot of money to get two years."
"I deserve every bit of it. I deserve more than what they are asking back because of the way they went about banning me for two years," he added.
"If I had tested positive, I would give every penny back.
"But someone telling them I told them something. Come on, this is not high school. They were playing games with my life." He said: "You couldn’t bring nobody in there but Kelli White? And this is what sealed the deal for them?"
He also said he believes anti-doping authorities aggressively pursued proceedings against him as a way of trying to build a case against Marion Jones who has been under investigation, although no action has so far been taken. She is the mother of Montgomery’s 2½-year-old son, though the couple have split and living separately. She has also split from Steve Riddick, the trainer she shared with Montgomery.
Montgomery, 30, said he finds himself facing an uncertain future solely because of his association with Victor Conte, the founder and head of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame, Calif., the self-described nutritionist at the center of the most far-reaching doping scandal in U.S. sports history.
"My mom always taught me: Be careful with the company you keep," Montgomery said. "Being around Victor - I understand. But not everybody that’s around somebody is doing what they say that person is doing."
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| Montgomery, Gaines To Stay In The Blocks For Two Years - Dec 14, 2005 6:15 IST |
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), today banned former World 100M champion Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines for two years for doping offences related to the BALCO laboratory in California. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency agency had requested four-year suspensions for both sprinter. But the arbitration court, the highest court in sports, cut the penalty in half. The bans come in effect from June 6, 2005 when the CAS began proceedings on the case.
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| Matt Cook(e)s Up A Win For Canucks - Dec 14, 2005 6:15 IST |
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NHL : Canucks 3 Rangers 2 4:31 remaining, teams tied at 2-2 and in comes Matt Cooke to score the winner of a rebound for the Vancouver Canucks, much to the disappointment of the Rangers’ fans.
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