Reinstatement Ahead for Harris

A USA Track & Field panel has recommended that intermediate hurdler Danny Harris’ four-year suspension for testing positive for cocaine be reduced to two years, which would enable him to return to competition on March 1, his attorney, Michael Frisby, said Wednesday.

USATF’s executive committee is expected to rule on the recommendation at its next meeting in September.

“They have the right to affirm, deny or modify the panel’s recommendation, but it would be unusual for them to deny it,” Frisby said. “We’re very optimistic.”

Harris, 27, tested positive for cocaine during the 1992 indoor national championships, which resulted in an automatic four-year suspension. But after spending the last several months in a rehabilitation program, which included 104 days in an East L.A. drug and alcohol treatment center, he was granted a June 29 reinstatement hearing.

“They found that Danny had made a real, sincere effort to turn his life around,” Frisby said.

Harris, from Perris, Calif., won the silver medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics and was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1990, but he probably is best known as the man who broke Edwin Moses’ 107-race winning streak in 1987.