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WASHINGTON: US baseball star Roger Clemens, fighting to defend his
reputation from doping allegations, denied any wrongdoing under oath
Wednesday during intense questioning at a five-hour Congressional
hearing.
Skeptical lawmakers said someone was lying and
attacked the credibility of Clemens and his former trainer Brian
McNamee, whose accusations that the 45-year-old pitcher is a dope
cheat led to the dramatic hearing.
McNamee has said he had injected Clemens,
regarded as one of the game’s all-time greatest, with steroids and
human growth hormone (HGH) at least 16 times between 1998 and 2001
in a probe into baseball doping by former Senator George Mitchell
that was released two months ago.
“I injected those drugs into the body of Roger
Clemens at his direction,” McNamee told the hearing. “I now
believe that the number of times I injected Roger Clemens was
actually greater than I initially stated.”
“I did not want to destroy Roger Clemens. I
was hoping this issue would just fade away.”
However, Clemens said the syringes used by
McNamee contained only vitamin B-12 and the painkiller lidocaine.
-- AFP
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