Shot putter Randy Barnes' chances of avoiding a lifetime ban from track and field are running out.
The latest chapter in Barnes' troubles came Friday when the International Amateur Athletic Federation said the B sample from his out-of-competition drug test April 1 was positive, showing the use of a banned nutritional supplement.To avoid a lifetime suspension, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist and world indoor and outdoor record-holder now must win an appeal before the three-member Doping Hearing Board of U.S. Track & Field.
If Barnes is found guilty, he will face a permanent ban because this would be his second offense. Barnes served a two-year suspension beginning in 1991 for the steroid methyltestosterone at a meet in Malmo, Sweden, in August 1990.