Sprinter reacts angrily to questions about long-term impact of doping‘I’m not sure why you would match a laboratory mouse to a human being’

Justin Gatlin has dismissed suggestions that he is still benefiting from anabolic steroids nearly a decade after taking them as “ridiculous”.

The American sprinter was banned from athletics for four years in 2006 after testing positive for testosterone. He has always maintained his innocence and claimed that a masseur rubbed a cream containing the banned substance on his back – something the masseur denies.

Gatlin, who earlier this month set a 100m personal best of 9.74sec at the age of 33, got into a row with journalists when he was asked about a study on mice that showed that the effects of doping could still be felt long after exposure.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Gatlin. “My situation was 2006 – that was a decade ago. They need to go and see what is happening in the medical world, don’t come to me with that. A lot of people have been in the same situation I have been in. I’m not sure why you would match a laboratory mouse to a human being. That’s unfathomable to me.”

Gatlin, who is running the 200m at the 2015 Pre Classic on Saturday, was also asked by the Let’s Run journalist Weldon Johnson how he could assure people that he was competing cleanly now. His response: “There is no more commentary. I said everything I had to say on that. There is no commentary. You can read all the articles.”

He was then asked whether he would admit to taking performance enhancing drugs. Again he failed to answer the question directly. “There is no admitting to it. If you are a history major you can go back in the archives and read those articles.”

Johnson asked if Gatlin was sticking to his story that his positive drugs for testosterone was due to his masseur. “Why do I need to change it?” he responded. “Why are you asking these questions that happened a decade ago? Are you a history major?”

When Johnson replied that he was indeed a history major, Gatlin told him: “Good, maybe you should go do that in a museum or something.”