Barnes, Reynolds to Keep Records Despite Sanctions

Shot-putter Randy Barnes and 400-meter runner Butch Reynolds will keep their world records despite testing positive for steroid use, track’s international governing body said today.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation also said that any differences in interpreting the test results between itself and The Athletics Congress, track’s ruling body in the United States, would be submitted to binding arbitration.

In the meantime, the IAAF added, Barnes and Reynolds, who both proclaim their innocence, are barred from all internationally recognized meets, even U.S. national championships where TAC has jurisdiction.

“Presumably those meets would be held under IAAF rules and, since TAC is a member, it is obliged to abide by IAAF rules,” Mark Butler, a spokesman at IAAF headquarters, said.

The IAAF confirmed Monday that Barnes and Reynolds both had tested positive at European meets this summer for using steroids.

It was the biggest drug scandal to hit international sports since Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was kicked out of the 1988 Olympics for using steroids. If the findings are upheld, Reynolds and Barnes would be barred from the 1991 world championships and 1992 Olympics.

Barnes, who set the world record of 75 feet, 10 1/4 inches in Los Angeles last May, tested positive for methyltestosterone following a meet in Malmo, Sweden, Aug. 7.

Reynolds, who ran a world-record 43.29 seconds for the 400 meters in Zurich, Switzerland, two years ago, tested positive for nandralone following a meet in Monaco Aug. 12.

Johnson lost his Olympic gold medal and world-record time of 9.79 seconds in the 100 meters immediately after testing positive for an anabolic steroid at the ’88 Olympics in Seoul. He later testified that he had used steroids since 1981, even though he passed repeated drug tests during that period.

The IAAF this year stripped Johnson of the world record of 9.83 seconds he set at the World Championships in Rome in 1987, even though drug tests after that performance failed to find any sign of banned substances.

It was part of a new federation policy allowing retroactive action based on admissions of drug use, and Butler said that was why the world records of Barnes and Reynolds would not be touched.

“There is no indication the IAAF will review their records,” he said. Both athletes passed drug tests after setting the world marks and deny using drugs now, he said.