US sprinter Justin Gatlin is certain to “name names” after accepting an eight-year ban for using performance enhancing drugs.

Gatlin has promised to cooperate with authorities as part of a deal to settle his doping case.

He was facing a life ban for a second doping offence but the US Anti-Doping Authority agreed to reduce it to eight years after he “promised to cooperate”.

Gatlin, the Olympic and world 100m champion, tested positive for testosterone on 22 April.

It is believed he is the first high profile athlete to agree to dob in others for doping offences since the introduction of the WADA code.

Under the code athletes who test positive and then name other athletes, coaches, officials or managers who gave them the banned substances can have their sentence reduced.

The US Olympic Committee Chairman, Peter Ueberroth, said today “to profit from your involvement in sport while knowingly participating in doping is fraud, and it should not be condoned”.

The 24-year-old American will also lose the 100m world record of 9.77 seconds he jointly holds with Jamaican Asafa Powell.

AOC