According to Italian news reports, masters long jump champion Roberto La Barbera, born in February 1967, failed a drug test at a recent meet. But he’s not your typical M40 jumper. He’s a blade jumper, a la Oscar Pistorius, the “blade runner.” Roberto sprints down the runway with a prosthetic leg. On Thursday, the Italian Paralympic Committee site reported “that, following the anti-doping tests made at the European Athletics Championships, held in Stadskanaal in Netherlands, 2 to 6 June 2010, the athlete Roberto La Barbera, affiliated with AS Scanavino Team, was not adverse to the substance known as Stanozolol. Pending the counter-analysis, the athlete is suspended from all activities (on an) interim basis.” Roberto says the banned drug was in tablets he chopped up for his dogs.

I first heard about Roberto’s sprint and jump exploits several weeks ago. He’s the Italian national masters champion. Before the news broke about his drug case, I sent him some questions. His answers were translated into English by Andrea Benatti, a masters track blogger at Italy’s Web Atletica.

Here’s my quickie Q&A with Roberto:

Masterstrack.com: Where do you live? What do you do for a living?

Roberto La Barbera: I live in Mandrogne, near Turin, north of Italy. I have a job in Cedacri, a firm that works with banking informatical services. This firm is also one of my big sponsor, because they let me to think completely to my workouts and my passion: track & field.

Do your wife, Margaret, and your three children support your athletics? How do they help?

I train for 5 hours a day. Of course (this) is a sacrifice for my wife, Margherita, that, with 3 sons had just a lot of work each day. But all together follow me in my training sessions and at the races. In Bejing they are with me. What I’m doing, I’m doing also for them.

Tell me about your accident. When did this happen and where?

I had a car accident on June 1, 1985, when I was 18, in a village near Mandrogne. At first, they were able to reattach the leg, but after a few days arrived a gangrene and so they were forced to cut it.

Were you athletic in your younger days? What sports did you do?

Before the accident I was a dancer. I started at age 5 and together with my sisters, we become one of the strongest dancers-couple of the world in ballo liscio, standard and latino americano. After the accident, in 1994, with my wife, we opened a dance school, becoming probably the first ballet master in the world without a foot. My students have noticed that I had lost one leg, just when I started athletics in 1998, when they saw me in TV.

Do you know Oscar Pistorius? If so, did he give you any athletics advice?

Oscar and I are friends. Can be that in December I’ll go with my family in South Africa to (be with) him, to complete the preparation in anticipation of World Championships in January, in New Zealand. We have never given advice.

Does anyone think you, like Oscar, have an unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes with your prosthetic leg?

With two prosthesis paradoxically you have many more advantages, but I think it is already talked a lot. In any chase Oscar is great! Now, on the world stage, arrived two new athletes without both two feet, and they are doing crazy things on track. Oscar will have to be careful, but I think that will serve to him as an incentive to go faster.

Why do you compete in athletics?

I do athletics because I love it!! I like to challenge everyone, especially myself! Since I was a child, I used to skip school for attending the Youth Games and the cross country. And I always won. My gym teachers asked to me to take athletics seriously, but I undertook the ball too much.

Do you do other events besides the long jump and sprints?

My PBs: 100 mt. 11,78 – 200 mt. 24,26 – 400 mt. 54,10 – long jump: 6.86 (22-6) all obtained this year, crazy! But I have also: 44.40 (about 145-8) in discus throw and 12.89 (42-4) in shot put.

Who are your sponsors besides Fiat?

In addition to Fiat and Cedacri, I’m Adidas’ testimonial, Piedmont Region testimonial, Dezzani Wine e G2 informatica testimonial.

Will you travel to Sacramento, USA, for the World Masters Athletics Championships in 2011?

Be at the World Masters in Sacramento and maybe win, would be my dream. But I have a good relationship with dreams!

Will you compete in the 2012 London Paralympics?

In Bejing I was the favourite in long jump, but 20 days before leaving, I seriously injured Achilles tendon. So I went into the final, but ended the effect of the medication, so I was no longer able to jump and I settled for an eighth place. London will be another story, and I hope will have a happy ending.

What are your long-term goals in athletics?

My long term goals are ambitious. I wish I could qualify to the Olympics as well as those in Brazil to those in Italy, and become the eldest athlete to achieve Olympic qualification. Then I’d like to obtain a masters world record! I’ll try!! Sure in master world you will be not able to get rid of me, because, as was said by another great athlete, “as long as I remain a little over 11 seconds of life, it will be enough to make a 100 meters.”

Of course, all Roberto’s plans are now up in the air. Here’s a rough translation of a news report on his defense:

Barbera defends himself after the suspension for doping: ‘will fight for me and my family’

July 30, 2010 | SPORTS | Alexandria – The Alexandrian Paralympic athlete Roberto La Barbera was “not negative” drug test conducted in early June after the races the Europeans in Holland. Here Barbera won gold in the 200 and 400 meters and silver in long jump.

The substance found in the urine sample of the silver medal in the Paralympics in Athens 2004, stanozolol, the same one that betrayed the Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson. Barbera has firmly rejected the accusations.

“When I learned of my non-negativity to this drug did not know what to do, now a law firm took up the slack. I want to fight for myself and for my family. The fear is to be labeled only as a doped.

“What I hope is to demonstrate beyond doubt that stanozolol comes from drugs that I used to care for my dogs. It is a paradoxical situation but I want to go back, see the precise quantities that have met.

“I’ll probably have this substance asssunto chopping these tablets with your hands or involuntarily bucandomi by injection to large dogs. If I could prove this would be exonerated and will probably receive only a warning from the fader for my carelessness.”

Barbera continues: “I signed them available dell’antidoping 365 days a year, this shows that if I’m wrong, I did it in good faith. Returning with his mind at that June 6 to Holland in the European I I remember that after the race, I could not urinate at the lowest dose sufficiency planned.

After waiting in vain for half an hour I drew the commissioners for the awards. This is an irregularity, a wrong behavior of employees doping. I would not have had to leave and then return.

This factor could be a weapon in my defense, the lawyer advised me if it bothers me attarmi this, because for me it means compromise. As always broken after so many hard times that I’ve come, so will be this time for this second part of my athletic life.”

Tuesday there will be the counter.

For the moment La Barbera has been suspended as a precaution.