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Baptiste fails drugs test

Port of Spain - Trinidad and Tobago sprinter Kelly-Ann Baptiste has failed a drugs test and withdrawn from the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, the Trinidad Express reported on Saturday.

The newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said Baptiste had tested positive for a banned substance, although Trinidad and Tobago team manager Dexter Voisin would not confirm that to the Express.

"She has voluntarily withdrawn from the competition and is heading back to her base," Voisin told the newspaper.

Regarding the positive test report, he said, "I can't disclose anything pertaining to that."

Semoy Hackett, another Trinidad and Tobago sprinter, has also withdrawn from the meet and, like Baptiste, has already left Moscow, according to the report.

Hackett was a US college sprinter at Louisiana State University and tested positive last year at the US college championship meet for methylhexaneamine.

A Trinidad and Tobago athletics administrations panel lifted a suspension against Baptiste, allowing her to run in the national championships in June, although the IAAF has appealed that ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"The IAAF doping department has re-suspended Hackett pending the outcome of the CAS case," Voisin said.

Baptiste, sixth in last year's Olympic women's 100 final and third in the 2011 worlds, was ranked third in the world this year with a time of 10.83 seconds, trailing only two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica and Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare.

Baptiste has reportedly trained with Tyson Gay, the US sprinter who was banned after a failed drug test in May.

At Moscow, she was entered in the 100m, 200m and as part of her homeland's 4x100m relay.

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