Gatlin not looking back in anger

Disgraced former Olympic and world champion Justin Gatlin says he has turned a corner and is not looking back.

Gatlin was the fastest man on the planet and the star of the athletics world when he won Olympic 100m gold in Athens in 2004 and followed that up with a 100m and 200m double at the Helsinki worlds a year later.

But the next year he tested positive for doping and was barred from the sport for four years as it was his second offence. Gatlin has always maintained his innocence and failed in two appeals to have his ban overturned.

But now the 28-year-old just wants to look forward.

“You don’t forget, everything stays there like a piece of lead,” he said.

“I’m not going back over the past. Guilty or not, I’ve turned the page. I want to run fast again and have the same opportunities as the others.

“I had to start from zero, I had to reconstruct my physical and mental form.”

Getting opportunities is not proving easy, however, as many meetings refuse to invite him.

However, he ran 10.09 in Rovereto on Tuesday and will compete in Padova today.

“I have a tough road, I run where they let me.”

And his ultimate aims? To get back to the top.

“The US trials for the 2011 worlds and those for the 2012 Olympics.”