Gatlin accuses London Diamond League organizers of hypocrisy

American sprinter Justin Gatlin accused British Athletics of double standards here on Thursday following the Anniversary Games snub.

"I've other races to compete, so that's fine with me," the fastest man over 100m so far this year told a pre-event press conference in Monaco. "But I've seen other athletes that have been in my situation in those races, so that kind of contradicts, doesn't it?"

The 33-year-old Gatlin, who was twice banned for doping offences during his career, ran a fastest 100m in 9.74 seconds in Doha in May, but has been denied a chance to compete the Lodnon Diamond League meeting next Friday.

British Athletics, having earlier announced not to invite "anyone who currently breings the sport into disrepute", refused to invite Gatlin despite paying other drug cheats to appear.

The Anniversary Games, the 11th stop of IAAF's 14-event elite series, are to be held in the Olympic Stadium with another disgraced American MIke Rodgers being invited and Jamaican Asafa Powell being welcome to race it in the future.

Rodgers was banned for nine months in 2011 after testing positive for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine, while Powell tested positive for a banned stimulant at the 2013 Jamican Championships.

"Regardless of what critics say, it doesn't bother me," said Gatlin, who served a four-year ban for testing positive for an anabolic steroid in 2006, the second doping offence of his career after earlier testing positive for amphetamines.

"At end of the day, I have to get on the line and cross the finish line first. It's my job, that I do to pay my bill.

"I don't try to measure my flak against anyone else's," he added. "I just worry about what I have to do."

Besides the 9.74s mark, Gatlin has also run 9.75 twice this season, and he's en route to a quicker 100m sprint in the Monaco diamond league race and even faster at the Beijing World Championships on August 22-30.

Asked his suggestion to British long-distance runner Mo Farah, who is running for just the second time since the doping scandal involving his coach Alberto Salazar was digged out, Gatlin said to shut out criticism with good races.

"I would say just focus on his race, run regardless of what's going to happen in the papers. Keep competing. Go out there, run fast, run hard, and that's what he's been doing," said Gatlin.

Farah will contest the 1500m here at the Stade Louis II on Friday evening for the first time since breaking Steve Cram's European record in 2013. Endi