Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
Justin Gatlin, 100m Olympic and world champion, looks on as his coach Trevor Graham talks while on a tour of Kingston College on North Street, downtown Kingston, on January 17, 2005. Both men are now embroiled in a controversy over drug cheating. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
FEW COACHES of high-profile track and field athletes over-shadow their charges. Trevor Graham, the Jamaica-born head of the Sprint Capitol track team, is one of them.
For those who came in late, Graham is the controversial coach of Justin Gatlin, the American who shares the world record for the 100 metres (9.77 seconds) with Jamaica's Asafa Powell.
Just over a week ago, Gatlin revealed that he tested positive for testosterone at a track meet in the United States in April. The sensational news again raised questions about the use of drugs among athletes connected to Graham.
In the past three years, several Sprint Capitol members have either been implicated or banned from the sport for using drugs to enhance their performance.
It is the second time that Gatlin, the Olympic and world champion over 100 metres, has returned a positive test. He faces a life ban from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) which is investigating the matter.
His coach is in danger of a two-year ban from athletics.
Graham blamed Christopher Whetstine, a former fitness trainer of Gatlin, for his athlete's elevated testosterone levels. Whetstine has denied the claim.
Maximum punishment
Michael Johnson, the former American 400m and 200m champion, has scoffed at the Whetstine allegation. He believes the Jamaican should get the maximum punishment.
"Graham should be banned for life due to his involvement with an alarming number of athletes who have tested positive while training under him," Johnson wrote in the British Daily Telegraph newspaper last week.
The backlash against Graham has already started.
Last week, the promising British sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, cut ties with Graham who was also barred from using facilities operated by U.S. Track and Field.
Ironically, sprinters Tim Mont-gomery and Marion Jones, two of the champion athletes who made Graham an in-demand coach, were in a similar position three years ago when the BALCO scandal erupted.
Graham admitted sending a syringe to the United States Anti-Doping Agency that triggered the biggest doping scandal in track and field history.
Montgomery, the former record holder for the 100 metres, was the biggest casualty of the investigations. He was banned for two years and has since retired from the sport.
Jones was also accused of using drugs, but came away from the BALCO hearings unscathed. At the time, Graham said he was "just a coach doing the right thing. I have no regrets."
Trevor Graham never made such headlines in his days as an athlete. A quarter-miler, he was part of Jamaica's 4x400 metres team that won the silver medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
Graham was not an outstanding athlete, but did well enough on the American circuit for St. Augustine College in North Carolina.
Sprint Capitol
Once his running days were over, Graham stayed put in North Carolina and formed the Sprint Capitol in 1989. His first athlete was his wife, Ann, a hurdler who competed for St. Augustine.
Shortly after, he began coaching American quarter-miler Antonio Pettigrew, a member of the U.S. gold medal-winning 4x400 metres team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Graham's stocks soared when he took the talented Jones under his wing in 1997. She was almost unbeatable going into the Sydney Games where she took the sprint double and copped a gold medal in the 4x100 metres relay.
Montgomery, her former lover, also seemed headed for the big times when he set a world best of 9.78 in September 2002. But after the BALCO hearings, he left the sport in disgrace. Other Sprint Capitol runners, including Jamaica-born Jerome Young, Dennis Mitchell and Michelle Collins, have been banned for steroids.
Prior to the BALCO affair, Trevor Graham seemed in line to join the list of great track and field coaches, a la Bob Kersee. Such acclaim may be unattainable even if he and Gatlin are cleared in the IAAF investigation.
