Favorable TAC Ruling Is Expected for Myricks

The Athletics Congress is expected to announce Monday that a three-member panel has recommended the reinstatement of long jumper Larry Myricks to track and field competition next April.

Myricks, a two-time world indoor champion and a bronze medalist in the 1988 Olympics Games, was suspended for life after testing positive three times this year for a stimulant commonly found in over-the-counter cold medicines.

In a conference call last Monday with the panel, Myricks, 34, said he was not aware that the medication he took for flu contained a substance on the banned list.

The panel determined that Myricks’ use of the stimulant was inadvertent and recommended that he be reinstated one year after he was suspended, a source said.

The recommendation will be forwarded to the executive council of TAC, which governs track and field in the United States. The executive council will decide on the recommendation at TAC’s annual convention in Seattle later this month.

“That will be a zoo,” said Myricks, who lives in Upland.

A TAC panel made a recommendation in July that Myricks be reinstated in January. The executive council rejected it but instructed Myricks to reapply.

Neither Myricks nor his coach, Ernie Grigoire, said Friday that they had received official notice of the most recent recommendation.

“There’s a lot that I feel, but I’m going to keep it to myself until I get something from (TAC) in writing,” Myricks said.

Grigoire said he expected a positive recommendation.

“I think Larry’s going to be reinstated,” he said. “I felt good about the interview with the panel. At least, Larry got to tell his story. We confessed to being ignorant, but that was about the extent of it. I didn’t feel that anyone there was out to get us.”