Eugene meet the first step in moving on.

Byline: Ron Bellamy / The Register-Guard

The lyrics of a song by Journey suggest "don't stop believin' " but for track and field fans, believin' got harder this week.

One of the sport's young superstars, sprinter Justin Gatlin, was found to have tested positive for using testosterone or other banned substances at the Kansas Relays earlier this year.

Because he has a previous positive test - unfortunately, medication for his attention deficit disorder triggered a positive test for a banned substance a few years ago - Gatlin faces a lifetime ban.

What a sad deal.

Sad, because Gatlin's been an outgoing, popular figure here at the Prefontaine Classic, where he's won the past two years. Sad, because you could have looked forward to him running in the U.S. Olympic Trials here in two years.

Sad, because at 24, he was supposedly a leader of the new generation of track and field stars, the athletes who were going to do it right, compete clean, either because of moral convictions or because they'd been scared straight by the BALCO scandal.

Gatlin made that commitment in a news conference at the Pre Classic; he did so again at the national championships, even though by then he already knew the "A" sample from Kansas had tested positive.

Gatlin has said he doesn't know how the testosterone got into his system. Maybe he truly doesn't - don't rule that out - and maybe we'll never know.

What we do know is that the timing couldn't have been much worse for Eugene.

Monday night, a news conference will introduce the brand - the logo - for the 2008 Olympic Trials, and offer schematics of what a refurbished Hayward Field will look like in two years.

Tuesday evening, Hayward Field will be the site of an innovative, fan-friendly meet, the Road to Eugene '08, featuring elite American athletes and some bright young talents on the USA Juniors team.

It might have been billed as a midsummer night's dream, but now there's been another track nightmare, the first since the bans that followed the BALCO case.

So much for the sport turning the corner, and it's too close to the apparent death of Gatlin's career for the mood to be as truly celebratory of the sport as it might have been.

Still, you have to look long-term. Ben Johnson's failed drug test from the 1988 Olympics hurt track and field, but hasn't killed it. BALCO hurt track and field, but hasn't killed it; there's a greater level of drug testing now than ever before, and major American sports like baseball and football still lag behind track and field in dealing with the issue firmly.

The U.S. Olympic Committee took another step this week, largely symbolic, in banning Gatlin's coach, Trevor Graham, from its training sites, because Gatlin - and this doesn't help his cause - is simply another in a string of a half-dozen or more athletes coached by Graham who have tested positive.

That's the next step for the sport - penalties against coaches and agents who show a history of aligning themselves with and fostering athletes who break the rules.

(Graham's finger-pointing at Eugene massage therapist Chris Whetstine, alleging that he sabotaged Gatlin by rubbing him with testosterone cream in Kansas - a charge that Whetstine has denied - seems to be regarded, within the sport, as having no credibility.)

Once upon a time, the Road to Eugene '08 meet dearly wanted Gatlin as a headliner, and thought it had a chance to get his participation. And he'd have sold some advance tickets, certainly.

Whatever the factors, the Eugene meet never became about Justin Gatlin, and although his shadow will undeniably be felt Tuesday night, the athletes who will compete here will try to put the spotlight on their own performances, in a place that has been such a haven for the sport.

The timing of the Gatlin disaster couldn't have been worse for the Eugene meet, yet from the perspective of track and field athletes, maybe there isn't a better time to compete at Hayward Field.