I’m just a scapegoat, says Asafa Powell's trainer

The trainer accused of giving tainted supplements to the Jamaican sprinters Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson has hit back, insisting he has done nothing wrong.

Both athletes tested positive for the banned substance oxilofrine at last month’s Jamaican National Championships, news of which only broke at the weekend.

The finger of blame was pointed towards Christopher Xuereb with the athletes’ agent Paul Doyle saying: “Asafa and Sherone have been tested more than 100 times each through their career . . . and never turned in a positive test.

“Now they change their supplements and the first time they get tested, they have a positive test? It has to be something in those new supplements that has caused it. Chris is the one that provided those. We’re not saying he did anything deliberate but it’s in those supplements.”

Xuereb’s room in Lignano, where the athletes have been training, was searched by Italian police and he claimed all the substances provided to them were found to be legal.

In an email to the Associated Press, he wrote: “It is time the athletes took responsibility for their doping instead of looking around for a scapegoat, whether that person is a therapist, bartender or anyone else. Athletes keep trying to blame the scapegoat.

“I have spoken to researchers and the police and am confident that I have done nothing wrong.”