DOHA, Qatar (AP) — American sprinter Ivory Williams has been pulled off the U.S. team for the World Indoor Championships after testing positive for marijuana.
USA Track and Field said in a statement Wednesday that Williams was disqualified after he won the 60-meter race at U.S. indoor championships in Albuquerque, N.M., less than two weeks ago.
Williams won the same event at the Millrose Games in January and was one of the favorites at the indoor worlds, which start Friday in Doha.
He was replaced by Trell Kimmons, who finished third in the event in Albuquerque.
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(Reuters) - American world indoor sprint favorite Ivory Williams has tested positive for marijuana and ruled ineligible for the world championships, costing the event one of its key match-ups, officials said on Wednesday.
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The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said Williams had tested positive for a metabolite of marijuana at the U.S. indoor championships in February and had been disqualified from all results at the meeting, thus nullifying his chance to compete in the world championships.
He also accepted a three-month period of ineligibility, which can be reduced to time served upon completion of an anti-doping educational program, USADA said in a statement.
Williams had been expected to meet British European champion Dwain Chambers over 60 meters in one of the highlights of the indoor championships, which begin in Doha on Friday.
“It is unfortunate,” Williams’s manager Ray Flynn told Reuters via telephone from the United States. “It was poor judgment and he acknowledges that and to my knowledge has accepted the A sample (as positive).”
The 24-year-old former world junior champion ran the fastest 60 meters in the world this season, 6.49 seconds, to win the American indoor title on February 28 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.