Teammate to appeal doping ruling that cost Bolt gold

Jamaican officials are likely to appeal the doping sanction of Nesta Carter that has cost Usain Bolt one of his gold medals.

Jamaica’s gold medal winning relay team member Nesta Carter with Usain Bolt

Jamaican Olympic officials are likely to appeal the doping sanction of relay runner Nesta Carter that has cost Usain Bolt one of his nine Olympic gold medals.

Carter failed a drugs test in a retest of a sample from the 2008 Beijing Games, testing positive for the banned substance Methylhexaneamine.

Methylhexaneamine is an energy-boosting ingredient in many dietary supplements and several Jamaican athletes have failed tests for it, including five sprinters in 2009, but sanctions have tended to be bans of three to six months, and the loss of an Olympic gold is an unusually strict punishment.

Tatyana Lebedeva, one of the most celebrated athletes in Russia, has been stripped of silver medals in the long jump and triple jump from the Beijing Games after her re-tests returned positive for the anabolic steroid turinabol.

The International Olympic Committee announced on Wednesday that it had stripped Jamaica of the 4x100m relay gold won in Beijing.

Jamaica Olympic Association president Michael Fennell and an attorney representing Carter indicated there will be an appeal, most likely to the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

“We have to decide what the best legal process is,” Fennell said after the JOA met with Carter’s representatives on Wednesday.

“It is a team and we are interested in ensuring they are properly protected and given a fair chance of clearing their names.”

Carter’s lawyer and executive members of his local club MVP also said they wanted to fight the decision. Carter ran the lead-off leg on a team that included Michael Frater, Bolt and Asafa Powell that crossed the line first.

The loss of the relay gold deprives Bolt of one of his “triple-triples” — he won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at Beijing and repeated the feat in London in 2012 and again in Rio last year.

A CAS spokesperson told AFP on Thursday they had not heard from Carter or his representatives.

An appeal must be filed by February 15.

AFP, The Times