Olympic athletes set to shine through smog, doping scandals

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — Beijing Games organisers will be hoping that the exciting crop of competitors in the blue riband event of athletics can dispel the sordid spectre of doping and provide a feast of top-class sport.

Certainly, there is a raft of big-name draw cards and record-breakers for whom the stage is set to shine, despite worries about pollution levels at a time when temperatures and humidity are expected to be sweltering.

Defending men's 100m champion Justin Gatlin will not be one of them, however, after failing in his bid to overturn a ban for testing positive in a drugs test.

Doping returned yet again this year to cast its ugly shadow over athletics, with five-time Olympic medallist Marion Jones jailed and stripped of her medals for lying to...