Sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown's drug suspension rocks Jamaica

Jamaica, home of the world's finest sprinters, has been thrown into turmoil after confirmation that the Caribbean island's most successful female sprinter has failed a drugs test.

Twice Olympic 200 metres champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, the first Jamaican to win a global 100 metres title, was provisionally suspended by the national federation after a positive test for a possible masking agent.

The news followed Jamaican 400 metres runner Dominique Blake's six-year ban last week for a second doping offence and world 4x100 metres relay gold medallist Steve Mullings losing his appeal in March against a lifetime ban from athletics.

Officials said 12 Jamaican athletes had received sanctions ranging from three months to life for doping violations in the past five years.

Campbell-Brown was at the forefront of Jamaica's transformation into a sprinting powerhouse when in 2004 she became the first woman from the Caribbean to win an Olympic gold medal with her victory over 200 metres at Athens.

Four years later, she became only the second woman to retain the title after East Germany's Barbel Woeckel (1976 and 1980) when finishing first in Beijing.