By Duncan Mackay

February 8 - UK Athletics today revealed that Kieren Kelly and Jamie Stevenson, who are coached by Britain's best known shot putter Geoff Capes (pictured), have been provisionally suspended from all competition after being charged by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) following their refusal to take drugs tests.



Capes, formerly the world's strongest man, has been relieved of his role as a mentor by England Athletics following the incident.

The provisional suspension, which begins with immediate effect, follows the refusal of both athletes to undertake an out-of-competition test at a training day at Loughborough University on January 9.

The pair will now have the opportunity to respond to the charge, including the right to a full hearing of the case.

If found guilty, they could face a two-year suspension and be banned from representing Britain in the Olympics for life.

The pair claimed that the toilets in which they would have to produce the urine sample were unclean.

Capes, 60, was allegedy present when they refused to take the tests.

Kelly, 23, competes in the shot put and finished first in the Indoor Championships of Ireland in Belfast at the weekend, just ahead of Stevenson.

Kelly, a member of Newham and Essex Beagles, finished second in last year’s Aviva World Trials and UK Championships and had a season’s best of 19.02 metres indoors.

Stevenson, also from Newham, had a best last year of 17.85m.

He won England Athletics age-group and Inter-Counties titles last season and competed for Britain at the 2008 World Junior Championships.

They were both part of a squad formed by Capes, now a magistrate and an award-winning budgerigar breeder, to find shot putters to represent Britain in the 2012 London Olympics.

Capes, the former British shot putter, represented his country a record 67 times and won the Commonwealth title in 1974 and 1978.

Capes, a former policeman, had joined up with the Lincolnshire Sports Partnership in June 2008 to launch his scheme for 2012 and was hoping  to find a thrower capable of reaching the Olympic shot put final in London.

A spokesman for England Athletics said: "England Athletics can confirm that Geoff Capes has previously been used on a consultancy basis working with club coaches.

"We are no longer using his services."
 
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