COLORADO SPRINGS (Colorado), Feb 2: Eric Thompson, a 19-year-old high jumper who was runner-up at last year’s junior national meet, received a one-year doping ban Friday from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Thompson was issued a one-year ban as a first offender after testing positive for the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine, a prohibited stimulant, last June 21 at the US junior championships in Indianapolis.

But the suspension period began last July 18, the date Thompson accepted a provisional suspension, and as a result gives him no chance to compete at this year’s US Olympic athletics trials June 27-July 6 at Eugene, Oregon.

Thompson was also stripped of his second-place finish at the junior event.

The Herrin, Illinois, high schooler had been rated one of the nation’s top prep prospects last year with a 7-foot-2 (2.18m) clearance.—AFP