Ato eager for exoneration
Kwame Laurence klaurence@trinidadexpress.com
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161314108Thursday, April 24th 2008
FORMER TRACK STAR: Ato Boldon
Ato Boldon is eagerly anticipating the trial of Jamaican-born sprint coach Trevor Graham. The former Trinidad and Tobago track star is certain he will be exonerated when federal witness Angel Guillermo Heredia goes on the stand next month, and calls the names of the elite athletes he claims to have provided with performance-enhancing drugs.
"May 19th can't reach fast enough for me," Boldon told the Express, yesterday, "because the truth is being well hidden. A lot of innuendo is going around."
Graham, who coached disgraced American sprinters Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery, is charged with making false statements to federal agents.
In a recent New York Times story, it was claimed that Heredia-the main witness in the case against Graham-had shown the newspaper evidence of a US$10,000 wire transfer from Boldon's former HSI training partner Maurice Greene.
Heredia apparently identified 12 clients who had earned a total of 26 Olympic and 21 world championship medals. Jones and Greene are among the 12, and though Boldon's name did not appear in the New York Times story, his close relationship with Greene has put T&T's quadruple Olympic medallist under the microscope.
To compound matters, Greene, the 2000 Olympic 100 metres champion, made the following statement: "Our group was very close and things always came up. I would pay for stuff and not care what it was. I've paid for things for other people without questioning it, done it plenty of times."
Boldon is not worried about the negative opinions being formed because of his association with Greene. He's looking forward, though, to hearing Heredia's list.