Gatlin's legal team ready to state case to USADA panel

RALEIGH, North Carolina, Aug 8 (Reuters) Justin Gatlin's legal team is ready to state its case to a US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) panel that will review the Olympic champion's positive drugs test, his attorney said.

''We will be filing our submission today,'' Cameron Myler told Reuters by e-mail.

She said the documents would not be available publicly, and in a telephone conversation last week said she would not discuss the contents of the filings.

The panel will review Gatlin's positive April test for the male sex hormone testosterone or its precursors and will make a recommendation to USADA on whether there is a case against the joint 100 metres world record holder.

''I'm not sure when the review board will make its decision,'' Myler said in the e-mail.

A USADA official said the anti-doping agency would not comment.

If charged, Gatlin would face a life ban because it would be his second doping offence.

The review panel is expected to look at documents from Gatlin's positive A and B samples, any filings USADA might make and the sprinter's attorneys' documents.

PANEL RECOMMENDATION The panel will then confer, often by telephone, and make a recommendation to USADA, according to the anti-doping agency's rules.

USADA, based on that recommendation, will decide whether Gatlin should be charged with a doping offence.

If charged, he would have an opportunity to contest the USADA decision and the recommended sanction first before a U.S.

panel of judges and then a panel of international judges from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The 24-year-old announced on July 29 that he had tested positive at the Kansas Relays on April 22.

He said he had never knowingly taken banned substances and did not know how he had tested positive.

Since Gatlin's announcement, his coach, Trevor Graham, has been banned by the US Olympic Committee (USOC) from using its facilities.

USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth said the decision was ''based on the unusual number of athletes he has coached who have been convicted of doping offences''.

More than half-a-dozen athletes coached or previously coached by Graham, including disgraced former 100 metres world record holder Tim Montgomery, have been suspended for doping.

North Carolina Central University in Durham also has banned Graham's Sprint Capitol training group from using its facilities.

The New York Times reported last month that Graham was under investigation by the same federal grand jury investigating San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds.

Graham has denied he is under investigation.

His attorney, Joseph Zeszotarski, said Graham would issue a statement today.

REUTERS DH RK0520