Home International Olympics Bolt Loses Beijing 2008 Relay Gold Medal After Teammate Disqualified

Bolt Loses Beijing 2008 Relay Gold Medal After Teammate Disqualified

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Bolt Loses Beijing 2008 Relay Gold Medal After Teammate Disqualified
Gold medalists (L - R) Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell of Jamaica pose during the medal ceremony for the men's 4 x 100m relay final of the athletics competition in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 23, 2008. Photo: REUTERS/Mike Blake (CHINA)

A Jamaican 4×100 meter relay team including Usain Bolt has been formally stripped of their Beijing 2008 Olympic gold medal after the disqualification of Nesta Carter for doping.

Russia’s Tatiana Lebedeva has also been stripped of silver medals won in the long jump and triple jump events.

The decisions, announced by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today, means that sprinting supremo Bolt loses the “triple triple” of gold medals won across the Beijing, London and Rio Games.

Re-analysis of frozen samples submitted by Carter resulted in a positive test for banned stimulant methylhexaneamine, a substance that was indirectly but not specifically on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited list at the time.

Trinidad and Tobago should now be promoted to the gold medal position.

Japan would take the silver medal and Brazil the bronze.

“The Jamaican team is disqualified from the men’s 4x100m relay event,” a statement confirmed.

“The corresponding medals, medalist pins and diplomas are withdrawn and shall be returned.

“This decision enters into force immediately.”

Michael Frater and Asafa Powell were the other two members of the victorious team who will now lose their medals.

Carter also earned a gold medal in the 4×100m relay, alongside Bolt, at London 2012.

He will not be stripped automatically of this result, although there will be targeted testing of it.

He was also a member of the 4x100m team which won gold medals at the 2011, 2013 and 2015 International Associations of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in Daegu, Moscow and Beijing respectively.

Carter won a bronze medal in the men’s 100m at the 2013 World Championships.

The Carter case is additionally complicated because methylhexaneamine was only added by name to the WADA banned list in 2010, although it was indirectly outlawed before then.

Some past methylhexaneamine cases have resulted in a warning rather than a ban.

It is not yet clear what other sanction Carter will face from the IAAF.

Lebedeva is a three-time world champion who also claimed the Athens 2004 long jump title.

The 40-year-old failed for banned steroid turinobol, the drug famed for being used in East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.

A test detecting the presence of the substance in the body for a far longer period has now been produced, but was not present in time for re-testing of Athens 2004 results.

Lebedeva becomes the second triple jump medallist in Beijing to be disqualified after Greece’s initial third placed finisher, Hrysopiyi Devetzi.

Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan could rise to second after initially placing fourth.

Cuba’s Yargelis Savigne would gain the bronze medal.

Françoise Mbango Etone of Cameroon remains the gold medal winner.

In the long jump, won by Maurren Maggi of Brazil, Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare is set to climb from third to second.

Chelsea Hammond of the United States would rise to third.

By Nick Butler

Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz

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