RPT-Doping-Major cases in WADA's first decade

(Repeats item first moved at 0002 GMT)

By Steve Keating

MONTREAL, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The following are 10 significant events that have helped to shape the fight against the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport in the decade since the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was formed:

Tim Montgomery (United States, Athletics)

Montgomery's case is regarded as a landmark in the fight against doping as it introduced the non-analytical positive.

Once the world's fastest man, Montgomery never returned a positive test for a banned substance but admitted under oath to a U.S. Federal grand jury investigating BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative) that he had used steroids and human growth hormone.

Montgomery, who helped the United States to win gold in the 4x100 metres relay at the Sydney Olympics, was stripped of his medal and his 100 metres world record of 9.78 seconds set in 2002 in Paris was wiped from the record books based on the evidence given during his testimony. He was barred from competition in 2005 and retired the following year.

Montgomery, who has a son with disgraced sprint queen Marion Jones, was later sentenced to 46 months in prison for cheque fraud and money laundering and last October had five years added to his sentence after being convicted of possessing heroin with the intent to distribute it.

BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative)

In 2003, a little laboratory on the outskirts of San Francisco became the epicentre of a huge doping scandal that continues to reverberate around the sporting world.

BALCO head Victor Conte, a former bass guitarist who switched careers and opened the laboratory, used a gregarious personality and self-taught knowledge of nutrition to gain access to some of the top names in athletics, baseball and American football.

Conte's operation was exposed after a syringe containing the designer steroid known as "The Clear" or THG (tetrahydrogestrinone) was handed over to doping authorities by disgruntled coach Trevor Graham.

The list of athletes linked to the laboratory included sprinters Montgomery, Jones and Dwain Chambers and baseball sluggers Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball's all-time home run king.

Bonds has denied knowingly taking steroids and has never failed a drug test but the seven-time National League Most Valuable Player has been indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges based on his grand jury testimony in the BALCO investigation.

Marion Jones (U.S., Athletics)

The biggest scalp taken by anti-doping crusaders, Jones was the world's best known and most successful female athlete before her career ended in disgrace and jail.

Winner of five medals, including three golds, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Jones had been the darling of the sporting world until a federal probe into the BALCO laboratory revealed her feats had been powered by performance-enhancing drugs.