may.23.2008

Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC)president Larry Romany believes that recent revelations in the Trevor Graham trail will benefit track and field and the Olympic Games.

Romany said the truth coming out will level the playing field for the athletes training and competing without performance-enhancing drugs.

"For years the sense was that drug cheats were getting away.It made things difficult for those who were drug free.The IAAF and USA Track and field must take a hard look at themselves given the scale of the problem" said Romany

Antonio Pettigrew admitted Thursday in federal court that he used performance-enhancing drugs from 1997 to 2001, when he was one of the world’s top 400-meter runners.

Testifying at the trial of his former longtime coach, Trevor Graham.

Pettigrew, 40, has never tested positive for drugs, but he admitted that he used human growth hormone to become stronger and took the blood-boosting drug EPO to improve his endurance.

He was part of the 4x400 relay team that won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

After Pettigrew testified, Jerome Young, another member of the championship relay team testified that he used EPO from 1999 until 2003. He said Graham had given him some of the drug and told him to inject it in his stomach.

Young was barred from the sport for life in 2004 for doping offenses. His ban was retroactive to June 1999, and he was forced to give up his 2000 Olympic gold medal in the 4x400 relay.

In December, the International Olympic Committee stripped Jones of her five Olympic medals, wiping her name from the record books after her admission that she was a drug cheat.Jones was also coached by Graham.