I am a clean athlete: Bolt

SIX-TIME Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt insisted he was “clean” in the wake of recent failed drugs tests by fellow Jamaican athletes.
Compatriots Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson recently tested positive as did the USA’s Tyson Gay, the fastest man in the world this year. Bolt (26) who will compete at the London Anniversary Games today, said he was “clean”.
“You have to be careful what you ingest but I’m not worried about it,” he said.
The Jamaican added: “As a person I make sure I’m careful. You have to trust your team.

“You have to keep up to date all of the time. It’s hard but that’s why you have a team to help you out with this kind of thing.”
The 100m and 200m world record holder pointed to his success as a schoolboy athlete as evidence of his innocence.

“I’ve been doing phenomenal things since I was 15 years old,” he said.
“I was the youngest person to win the world juniors. I ran the world junior record in 19.93 at the age of 18. World youth record at 17.
“I have broken every record there is to break in    every event I have ever done. So I have proved myself  since I was 15.

“Right now I am just living out my dream.”
Bolt sent a text message to Powell soon after it was announced he tested positive for the banned stimulant oxilofrine at the national trials last month.

He added: “I told him I was sorry to hear what’s going on and I told him to stay strong and stay focused, and hopefully everything will work out.”
The recent spate of positive drug tests has put the focus back on a sport that has been dogged by doping scandals in the past.

“It’s going to set athletics back a little bit, but as a person I can’t really focus on this,” he added.
“I have the World Championships. I’m just trying to work hard, run fast.”

Bolt was speaking on the same day a Jamaica  football player tested positive for a banned substance after a World Cup qualifying match against Honduras.

The Jamaica Football Federation said it was notified by Fifa that a “member of the Jamaican squad returned an adverse analytical finding on his urine sample” after the 11 June game.

Bolt became the first athlete to retain the 100m and 200m crown at the 2012 London Olympics last summer and then won his third gold of the Games when he anchored Jamaica’s sprint relay team to a sensational world record.-BBC.