Keita fails drugs test

The French body said Keita had blamed the positive test on a food supplement he ordered online to help regenerate a sore stomach muscle.

The athlete admitted he had made a mistake by not showing the product to the French team doctor before taking it, the FFA said.

"The FFA president (Bernard Amsalem) is very disappointed and would like to state how important it is for athletes not to let just anybody give them advice," the FFA said in a statement.

"No product or food supplement should be taken if it has not been approved by the FFA's medical staff," it added.

Keita, 29, was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 400 hurdles at the world championships which finished last Sunday.

He won gold with the French 4x400 relay team at the 2003 worlds in Paris.

If the analysis of the B-sample confirms the positive result, he risks a two-year ban.

The news of his positive test came as a further blow to French athletics, which has been hurt by a doping scandal hurting its middle-distance runners.

Over the past year three athletes, French 1,500 metres record holder Hind Dehiba, Latifa Essarokh and Nordine Gezzar, have been suspended for two years after all testing positive for banned substances.

France left the Osaka championships with just two silver medals.

IAAF president Lamine Diack said on the final day of the championships that the anti-doping programme at the event had unearthed one "adverse result".