There is no way Olympic and world 100 metres champion Justin Gatlin can avoid a lifetime ban if his positive test for testosterone is confirmed, a senior IAAF official said on Monday.

IAAF general secretary Pierre Weiss, speaking on the sidelines of a news conference to open the world junior championships, said any work American Gatlin's lawyers did to prove there were special circumstances would be in vain.

"There is no question," Weiss said. "The rules are very clear, two years for a first offence then a lifetime ban.

"If it is confirmed that he has tested positive for testosterone, I don't see any way not to impose a lifetime ban."

The IAAF are still waiting to receive official confirmation of the charges against Gatlin from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Gatlin appealed against his first positive test, for amphetamine at the US junior championships in 2001, saying the drug was contained in a prescription medicine he had taken for 10 years to counter a form of attention deficit disorder.

As a result, The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) reinstated him early from his two-year ban, although he was told that another positive test would result in a lifetime ban.

BITTERLY DISAPPOINTED

IAAF president Lamine Diack said on Monday that the rules under which Gatlin's first ban was appealed no longer stood and reiterated his disappointment that such a high profile athlete had tested positive.

"We were all bitterly disappointed to hear ... Gatlin failed a dope test," Diack told the news conference.

"Although his case has not yet been concluded, we must use this opportunity to underline the IAAF's total commitment to the fight against doping.

"In order to defend the credibility of our sport we will engage all our efforts ... to defend the majority of clean athletes against the small minority who persist in ignoring our anti-doping rules."

Late last month, Gatlin announced he had tested positive for male sex hormone testosterone or its precursors but said he did not know how the substance had got into his sample.

The 24-year-old New Yorker maintained he had never knowingly taken any banned substance.

His lawyer Cameron Myler said last week that Gatlin's legal team would try to invoke the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA's exceptional circumstances provision.

This allows the voiding of charges or reduction of sanctions if the athlete is bears no fault or negligence for the violation.

The world junior championships take place in Beijing, host city of the 2008 Summer Olympics, from Tuesday to Sunday.

(Reuters via China Daily August 15, 2006)