MADRID, Feb 1: Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey Is to run in the Valencia indoor meeting on Wed-

nesday despite being embroiled in a doping controversy, the athletes agent confirmed on Monday, reports Reuters.

Ottey's outing in Valencia will be her first since the announcement of a positive test for the banned steroid nan-drolone last summer.

The athlete's agent Daniel Zimmermann said she would run only the 60 metres in Valencia. the distance at which she was the 1995 world indoor champion.

Meeting organisers defended their decision lo Invite Otley to lhe first major athletics event in the city since the 1998 European Indoor Championships.

We have an obligation to make the meeting as attractive as possible." a representive of the organisers Unipublic said.

Unipublic said no pressure has yet been put on them, by either the Spanish athletics federation (RFEA) or the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), to withdraw their invitiation to Ottey. However. RFEA president Jose Marla Odriozola said he would urge the meeting organisers to reconsider their position.

We can t oblige them to do anyihing because legally she is not banned. But It would be bad for athletics. It also gives the Impression that in Spain we are soft on doping.” Odriozola said.

Odriozola. a professor of biochemistry, is also an IAAF Council member and a vehement anti-doping campaigner.

Ottey pulled out of a meeting In Karlsruhe. Germany, on Saturday after her planned ip-pearance provoked a storn. of protest from the German athletics federation and the IAAF.

"I made the decision to withdraw her while she was on the plane to Frankfurt on Friday night. The pressure on the organiser was just too great from the German federation and the IAAF. It was having a devaslating effect on all the athletes." Zimmermann told Reuters by telephone from his office in Liechtenstein.

He added that the action of the German federation was being discussed with their lawyers with a view to taking legal action.

However, we don't anticipate similar problems in Spain.

The organisers have checked with the Spanish federation and their sponsors. They (the organisers) still want Merlene to run." Zimmermann added.

Ottey produced a positive dope test at a meeting in Lucerne on July 5 but the news only emerged on August 18. two days before the start of the world championships in Seville in which she was due to compete for a record seventh time.

Ottey has vowed to clear her name and has strenuously denied all allegations of drug-taking.

The Jamaican federation subsequently cleared Ottey, who has won 14 world championship medals and seven Olympic medals, of any wrongdoing in November.

The IAAF have yet to accept the decision and has convened its arbitration panel but under Its regulations Ottey is entitled to race until the sport's governing body bans her.

We know that the meeting organisers are sticking stickly to the rules but there is also a strong possiblity that the ’ XAF will sanction her. It would e a joke if Ottey ran in Valencia," Odriozola added.