Controversial sprinter Justin Gatlin ran into a new row on Tuesday when he flew home on the eve of the Beijing World Challenge meeting, claiming organisers had told him they did not want him to compete.
The American, who has served two doping bans but is currently the world’s fastest man, said he had planned to run the 100 metres in Wednesday’s meeting despite slight injury concerns but was told he was not wanted.
Gatlin, who had ran the fastest 100 metres of his life and the quickest in the world this year at 9.74 seconds in Doha on Friday, told reporters as he left for the airport to fly home to Florida that he was “upset” by the lack of respect shown to him.
Nobody from the meeting organisers was available to respond to Gatlin’s comments.
Gatlin, who had flown from Doha straight to Beijing on Saturday, said he had initially told organisers that he had suffered cramping in a tight hamstring and dehydration following the flight and was not sure about his fitness to compete.
Yet after coming through a training session on Monday, he felt confident he would be fit to compete at a meeting where he has starred before.
“I was happy to stay. I’m fit and ready to run. I was cramping a lot after the fastest my body has ever run,” Gatlin said.
“They didn’t have any respect for me so they said ‘you better leave’ and they kicked me out.”
Gatlin’s manager Renaldo Nehemiah showed a text message from an organisers’ representative sent to him on Monday, saying that the local organising committee felt Gatlin should leave. Nehemiah claimed organisers had made Gatlin and his team pay all their flight and hotel costs, amounting to about $12,000.
“It’s been costly,” he said.