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| The implicated athletes, American Tyson Gay and Jamaican Asafa Powell. |
The sport's governing body, the IAAF, says the latest doping scandals enhance rather than diminish the credibility of track and field.
The problem for athletics is that trust in the sport and its athletes was already paper thin. Over the past few months there have been a series of positive tests and doping investigations on top athletes.
In Kenya, the IAAF and the Kenyan Athletics Federation set up an inquiry into claims that there was widespread drug use in the country's distance running training camps. A temporary blood testing lab has been set up to try and crack down on possible cheating.
In Russia, there are 42 athletes currently suspended for doping. With the World Championships in Moscow just a month away, this is a huge embarrassment. In Turkey, eight athletes are under investigation but reports suggest the number under suspicion could be much higher than that.
Veronica Campbell Brown, the two time Olympic 200m champion, has already been suspended for using a diuretic well known as a masking agent while Powell and Sherone Simpson have both produced an adverse finding.
Local reports in Jamaica suggest another three athletes have also tested positive, although this has not been confirmed by the Jamaican Athletics Administrative Association.
For years now Jamaica have had to counter claims that their emergence as one of track and field's super powers was in any way linked to banned drugs. The recent rash of cases will not do anything to remove the suspicions.
As with Powell and Simpson, Gay is now awaiting the results of tests on his B sample. If it confirms the A sample and he is suspended he will be the most high profile name in track and field to be banned since Justin Gatlin back in 2006.
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