Italian police raid Jamaican sprinters' hotel

Italian police confiscated unknown substances in a raid on the hotel where Jamaican sprinters Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson were staying after each tested positive for banned stimulants.
Rooms of the athletes and physical trainer Christopher Xuereb of Canada were searched yesterday and drugs and muscle supplements were seized, Udine police captain Antonio Pisapia told The Associated Press.
Pisapia said it was unclear if the drugs and muscle supplements were legal or illicit and that the substances were being analysed.
"We are examining the substances now," Pisapia said. "No arrests have been made and nobody has been placed under investigation."

Meanwhile, discus thrower Allison Randall acknowledged that she was one of the five Jamaican athletes who tested positive for the stimulant oxilofrine at the Jamaican championships last month, along with Powell, a former world-record holder at 100 meters, and Simpson.
Randall holds the island's record for the discus throw and competed at the London Olympics. Her statement says she was "shocked and surprised" at the findings and hopes her backup sample will clear her name.

The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association issued a brief statement yesterday saying an anti-doping management process has started for the athletes. It did not identify the two other athletes who tested positive.

Both Powell and Simpson train under Stephen Francis, a coach at the high-profile MVP Track and Field Club in Jamaica.
In an interview on Jamaican radio station HITZ 92 yesterday, Francis blamed the positive tests on Xuereb.
"We are not disowning Asafa, we are just saying this relates to his personal employee. The trainer has nothing to do with MVP," Francis said.