RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Optimistic former Olympic champion Justin Gatlin will continue his comeback from a four-year doping suspension with a 100 meters race in Joensuu, Finland, on Saturday, he said.

“I’m like that train going up the mountain,” Gatlin told Reuters on Thursday from Joensuu. “I am steadily growing.”

Twice a winner already since his ban ended last month, Gatlin said he also had 100 meters races lined up for Rovereto, Italy, on Aug 31 and Padova, Italy, on Sept 3.

“It feels good to be back,” said the 28-year-old, who tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone and its precursor in 2006.

“I am racing. I’m getting better. People are not pushing me away,” said the 2005 double sprint world champion.

His opening two races in Estonia earlier this month showed he continued to have good top-end speed, but his rusty starts left him with times of 10.24 and 10.17 seconds.

He has spent the past week of practice trying to improve his start and smooth out his technique for the first 40 meters of his races.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Former world 400 metres champion Antonio Pettigrew has been found dead, the university where he worked as a coach said on Tuesday.

Pettigrew, who is survived by his wife and son, had been an assistant athletics coach at the University of North Carolina for four the past four seasons.

“Although we are still learning the circumstances, we are deeply saddened to learn of Antonio’s death,” Dick Baddour, the school’s athletic director, said of the 1991 world champion.

“I was particularly impressed with the relationships he established with his student-athletes and the pride he took in representing the university.”

The 42-year-old Pettigrew, who was stripped of an Olympic gold medal after admitting to doping, was found unresponsive by friends in the back seat of his vehicle in Chatham County in central North Carolina early on Tuesday.

“Chatham deputies and (emergency management services) arrived and found Pettigrew was deceased with no apparent trauma,” Chatham County officials said in a statement.

The officials said there were indications Pettigrew may have taken a sleep aid but were unclear if that caused a role in his death.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Former world 400 meters champion Antonio Pettigrew has been found dead, the university where he worked as a coach said on Tuesday.

Pettigrew, who is survived by his wife and son, had been an assistant athletics coach at the University of North Carolina for four the past four seasons.

“Although we are still learning the circumstances, we are deeply saddened to learn of Antonio’s death,” Dick Baddour, the school’s athletic director, said of the 1991 world champion.

“I was particularly impressed with the relationships he established with his student-athletes and the pride he took in representing the university.”

The 42-year-old Pettigrew, who was stripped of an Olympic gold medal after admitting to doping, was found unresponsive by friends in the back seat of his vehicle in Chatham County in central North Carolina early on Tuesday.

“Chatham deputies and (emergency management services) arrived and found Pettigrew was deceased with no apparent trauma,” Chatham County officials said in a statement.

The officials said there were indications Pettigrew may have taken a sleep aid but were unclear if that caused a role in his death.

RALEIGH, North Carolina, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Former world 400 metres champion Antonio Pettigrew has been found dead, the university where he worked as a coach said on Tuesday.

Pettigrew, who is survived by his wife and son, had been an assistant athletics coach at the University of North Carolina for four the past four seasons.

“Although we are still learning the circumstances, we are deeply saddened to learn of Antonio’s death,” Dick Baddour, the school’s athletic director, said of the 1991 world champion.

“I was particularly impressed with the relationships he established with his student-athletes and the pride he took in representing the university.”

The 42-year-old Pettigrew, who was stripped of an Olympic gold medal after admitting to doping, was found unresponsive by friends in the back seat of his vehicle in Chatham County in central North Carolina early on Tuesday.

“Chatham deputies and (emergency management services) arrived and found Pettigrew was deceased with no apparent trauma,” Chatham County officials said in a statement.

The officials said there were indications Pettigrew may have taken a sleep aid but were unclear if that caused a role in his death.

ATLANTA (Reuters) – In the searing Georgia sun, American Justin Gatlin works alone on resurrecting a sprinting career cast into limbo by a four-year doping ban.

“It will almost be a half decade,” the former world and Olympic 100 meters champion said of his last competitive race in 2006.

Gatlin, though, has never contemplated quitting.

In an athletics world where he once was king but where Usain Bolt now rules, the 28-year-old will regain his eligibility on Sunday and attempt a successful sprinting comeback.

“It is in my heart,” Gatlin told Reuters. “This is what I do. I feel I owe it to my fans and friends to show them I can still do it.”

A 2006 positive test for the male sex hormone testosterone and its precursors at a 2006 Kansas relay meeting and a subsequent four-year ban temporarily wiped out his career.

“Denial, anger, sadness, a little bit of depression, embarrassment set in,” said Gatlin, who always denied knowingly taking performance enhancing drugs. “Now I am coming to a point where I am more calm, more mellow.”

ATLANTA, July 24 (Reuters) – In the searing Georgia sun, American Justin Gatlin works alone on resurrecting a sprinting career cast into limbo by a four-year doping ban.

“It will almost be a half decade,” the former world and Olympic 100 metres champion said of his last competitive race in 2006.

Gatlin, though, has never comtemplated quitting.

In an athletics world where he once was king but where Usain Bolt now rules, the 28-year-old will regain his eligibility on Sunday and attempt a successful sprinting comeback.

“It is in my heart,” Gatlin told Reuters. “This is what I do. I feel I owe it to my fans and friends to show them I can still do it.”

A 2006 positive test for the male sex hormone testosterone and its precursors at a 2006 Kansas relay meeting and a subsequent four-year ban temporarily wiped out his career.

“Denial, anger, sadness, a little bit of depression, embarrassment set in,” said Gatlin, who always denied knowingly taking performance enhancing drugs. “Now I am coming to a point where I am more calm, more mellow.”

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Jamaican triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt will not compete in the New Delhi Commonwealth Games from Oct 3-14 because they are too late in the year, coach Glen Mills told Reuters on Saturday.

“It was not part of our schedule,” Mills said via telephone from Jamaica.

Mills said Bolt had known for several months that he would not be going to the Commonwealth Games.

“The time would be when he would be doing his background training for next year’s world championships,” he said.

Bolt has always said he would defer to his coach on whether he would compete in the Games.

The world 100 and 200 metres record holder will also miss next weekend’s national championships.

“He was never down to run the (Jamaican) trials,” Mills said.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt’s remaining 200 metres season may be in jeopardy because of a strained Achilles tendon, the Jamaican said on Wednesday.

“I have no idea, but I am praying on it,” Bolt told a news conference when asked if he would run another 200 metres this season.

“The doctor said in four weeks I should be OK.”

Bolt has switched to the 100 metres from the 200 for Thursday’s Diamond League meeting in Lausanne to avoid further injury.

“He (the doctor) does not want me to run the bend until I am 100 percent fit because it would put more stress on my Achilles tendon,” the world 100 and 200 metres record holder said.

Bolt developed a tightness in his left Achilles tendon in late May after running a 300 metres in Ostrava. He has not run since and only resumed speed work last week.

He has the year’s fastest time for the 200, having run 19.56 seconds in Kingston in May.

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) – Olympic bronze medalist Walter Dix edged out Tyson Gay in the former world champion’s hotly-anticipated return to the 200 meters at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting on Saturday.

In the 110 meters hurdles, American David Oliver recorded the fourth fastest 110 meters hurdles of all time with a 12.90 second run.

Gay, who has been battling a nagging hamstring problem for seven weeks, ran his first 200 of the year in 19.76 seconds to finish just shy of Dix, who took control coming off the bend and stayed in front to win in 19.72.

“It wasn’t bad, but I was a little fatigued toward the end,” Gay said. “I tried to stay relaxed and bring it home, but it wasn’t enough.”

Dix, who won the 100 meters and placed second at the U.S. nationals last weekend, said his race experience had helped, “but I’m a little beat up, too.”

“I was a little sloppy out of the blocks, but I was able to hold on,” he added. “Tyson gave me great competition.”

Oliver, the Olympic bronze medalist, equaled Dominique Arnold’s national record with his second consecutive lifetime best. He ran 12.93 to win the U.S. championships last Sunday.

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) – A rusty Tyson Gay returns to the site of one of his biggest disappointments when he competes over 200 metres in the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting on Saturday.

Gay’s Olympic medal ambitions for the 200 metres at the 2008 Beijing Games were cruelly dashed at Eugene’s Hayward Field two years ago, when a leg injury saw him crash to the track during U.S. trials.

“This is an opportunity to redeem myself hopefully from 2008,” the world 100 metres silver medallist told a news conference on Friday.

With the 2007 world double sprint champion’s 200 metres hopes quashed, Gay’s 100 metres bid at Beijing also ended in frustration at the quarter-finals, as Jamaican Usain Bolt swept to world records with legendary runs in both finals.

Gay, back in Eugene for his first 200 metres of the season, ran one round of the 100 metres here at the 2009 U.S. trials in to qualify for the world championships, but did not enter the 200.

“I thought about it (the 2008 race) today for the first time,” he said. “I haven’t watched that race for a long time. I just want to take advantage of running on a nice track.”

Gay’s comeback road has not been smooth, a nagging tightness in his right hamstring believed to be caused by an old back injury has hampered his training for almost seven weeks.