San Francisco, Oct 18: Three American track and field athletes are among more than 40 US sports figures who face subpoenas from a federal grand jury investigating an international doping conspiracy, reports have said. An international sports network, citing unnamed sources, reported that three athletes who failed drug tests at the us track and field championships last June in Palo Alto, California, have been subpoenaed in the case involving Victor Conte.
Conte runs a nutrition supplement firm known as Balco Labs which has a client list including host of elite athletes such as American footballers and US track stars Kelli White and Marion Jones. The network's web site reported 40 other athletes might be served subpoenas, including several top figures in US sport.
Questions abound that Conte might have created a new anabolic steroid that until now has escaped all known doping controls, a claim he denied in e-mails to several newspapers.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency, which has refused to name the athletes involved, named the product Tetrahydrogestrinon (THG) - a synthetic anabolic steroid. The agency has sought the designer steroid in more than 100 tests taken at sports events outside the US national athletics meet. US professional sports leagues have been informed of the substance. Bureau Report