Gatlin still has hopes of competing in Beijing

Banned sprinter Justin Gatlin has failed in his bid to compete at this weekend's US Olympic trials in Atlanta.

The Athens Olympics 100m champion had sought an injunction from the US Court of Appeal although it is unlikely he could compete in the Beijing Olympics.

Gatlin, 26, got a four-year ban in 2006 after failing a second drugs test.

However, he claims the first one, in 2001, should not have counted against him because the drugs were to treat his Attention Deficit Disorder.

Gatlin appeared to have been given hope of running last week when Judge Lacey Collier issued an order prohibiting four governing bodies from preventing him competing pending a hearing.

But on issuing the injunction on Tuesday, the federal judge said that he felt Gatlin had been treated unfairly in being suspended, but that the court had no power to right what he perceived as a wrong.

Both the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the International Olympic Committee were adamant that even if Gatlin had succeeded on Tuesday, neither body would have permitted him to compete in August's Olympic Games in China.

Gatlin's legal team, however, believed he should at least be allowed to compete at the trials.

"Gatlin is not asking this Court to put him on the United States Olympic team. He is simply seeking to preserve his ability to have the USOC place him on the team if prevails during the qualification trials this weekend," his attorneys said in the motion.

Gatlin was initially banned for eight years by the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) but it was reduced to four years after an appeal in January.

The basis of his lawsuit against Usada, USA Track & Field (USATF), the US Olympic Committee (Usoc) and the IAAF is that an arbitration panel used his 2001 test to increase his penalty for the 2006 offence in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.