JOHN Steffensen, the enfant terrible of Australian athletics, has been slapped with a world-wide ban from competition for allegedly bringing the sport into disrepute.
The extroverted and sometimes brilliant but often controversial 400m sprinter was ruled ineligible to compete for three months at a hearing by an independent arbitration panel convened by the Victorian Olympic Council.
“He [Steffensen] was summoned to appear before the panel but he never showed, nor did his representative,” Athletics Australia’s new CEO Dallas O’Brien confirmed to The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
"John was called to account for comments he made at the national championships [last April] and also comments he made leading up to the Commonwealth Games [in October]. We’re not out there to crucify the guy but you can’t go around sledging or publicly demeaning the sport.
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“Hopefully we can put it behind us. As it happens he is eligible to come back to competition in March and hopefully he qualifies for the Australian team to compete at the world championships next year.”
Steffensen, who had back surgery three months before the nationals, demanded and received from AA an exemption to miss the titles, but he also insisted on a guarantee of selection, which AA - in fairness to every other 400m runner vying for selection - could not grant to him.
Although this ban is a stain on Steffensen’s reputation, it is otherwise meaningless because in recent years he has opted not to race before March in any case.
Banned John Steffensen will retain AA race cash
Mike Hurst From: The Daily Telegraph December 21
DESPITE banning John Steffensen until February 16 next year, Athletics Australia has retained the 400m sprinter on a list of athletes to be funded to compete on the domestic tour this summer.
The suspension means the 2006 Commonwealth Games 400m gold medallist would miss the opening stop on the circuit, in Brisbane on February 11.
AA set a time of 46.16sec as the funding standard for male 400m runners. Sean Wroe, Joel Milburn, Ben Offereins, Clay Watkins, Kevin Moore and Steffensen have all achieved that standard this year.
The first possible Australian Athletics Tour event available to Steffensen will be the Briggs Track Classic, on February 20, in Hobart.
Steffensen found himself in hot water after comments he made in Perth in April and then again when he announced his withdrawal from the Commonwealth Games team in September.
Athletics Australia brought charges against Steffensen, that he brought the sport into disrepute.
The Victorian Olympic Council did not organise the independent arbitration panel but provided their rooms to hear the matter. The panel was made up of Ian Hill QC (chairman), Jim Barry (administrator) and Jason Pennell (athlete).
Dallas O’Brien, the new AA CEO, said: “We accept the findings of the independent tribunal and look forward to seeing John run at the Australian Athletics Championships in April, and hopefully in green and gold at the world championships and London Olympics.”
“The extroverted and sometimes brilliant but often controversial 400m sprinter was ruled ineligible to compete for three months at a hearing by an independent arbitration panel convened by the Victorian Olympic Council.”
The Victorian Olympic Council did not organise the independent arbitration panel but provided their rooms to hear the matter. The panel was made up of Ian Hill QC (chairman), Jim Barry (administrator) and Jason Pennell (athlete).
I saw him training last week, guessed he hasn’t beem banned from training, maybe he can’t be stopped from running.
Dazed I saw a beautiful example of an early Mazda Capella in the carpark, the exaust hinted a rotary under the hood, I assumed it was John’s as i didn’t see the porsche. Is that the project he had.