Sotomayor Denies New Cocaine Charge

H A V A N A, Aug. 4, 2000 -- Cuba’s world champion high jumperJavier Sotomayor today denied an allegation from a topInternational Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) official thathe had been caught taking cocaine again after last year’s ban.

“Of course it is false, it is totally false,” a vehementSotomayor told Reuters after learning of senior IAAF vice president Arne Ljungqvist’s comments just two days after he wascleared to compete at the Sydney Olympics.

“Behind this, there is someone who wants to do me harm. Wesee bad intentions,” Sotomayor added in a telephoneconversation from his home in Havana before heading out fordaily training.

The athlete, who has always vigorously denied the firstcocaine doping charge from the 1999 Pan-American Games inCanada, said the claim he was also later found taking therecreational drug again was “impossible.”

Allegations from IAAF

Sotomayor’s two-year suspension was lifted this week,clearing him to compete at the Sydney Olympics next month, butLjungqvist said he had tested positive for the drug at leastonce since failing a test for the substance at the Pan-American Games.

“I know there was at least one positive test and possiblytwo,” Ljungqvist said in Stockholm. “There was definitely oneout-of-competition positive test.”

Ljungqvist, who is head of the IAAF’s medical committee anda member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said hewas unhappy with the council’s decision to reduce Sotomayor’sban.

“For me it was a decision against our rules,” he said. “Idisassociated myself from the decision.”

Sotomayor said he had been given numerous surprise testsover the year since Winnipeg, but none of them had been forcocaine. “There are some things which are impossible,” hesaid.

In Monaco earlier this week, the IAAF council agreed, under“exceptional circumstances” for humanitarian reasons, to halveSotomayor’s two-year ban imposed from July 31, 1999, after hetested positive in Canada.

Revered in Cuba

Sotomayor, 32, was the 1992 Barcelona Olympic champion andhas twice won the world title. He is a popular hero in Cuba, andis viewed by President Fidel Castro’s government as a supremeproduct of its socialist sports system.

At a patriotic ceremony in Havana late on Wednesday inhonor of Cuba’s full Olympic squad, Sotomayor received aprolonged standing ovation from the crowd — including Castro.

Castro has personally defended Sotomayor, calling him one ofthe “glories” of the nation who became the victim of bungledlaboratory techniques and a probable plot by anti-communist foesabroad.