Sprint champion Usain Bolt and the rest of the Jamaican 4x100m relay team are a step closer to losing their Beijing Olympic gold medal, after a sample from one of the team returned a second positive test for a banned stimulant.
Reuters is reporting Nesta Carter's "B" sample has returned a positive result for the banned substance methylhexanamin .
The Jamaica Olympic Association said last week it had received notification from the International Olympic Committee that one of its competitors had returned a postive dope test.
Carter, who has helped Jamaican 4x100 metre relay teams to Olympic and world championship titles, tested positive for the banned stimulant methylhexanamin in a re-test of 454 samples from the 2008 Beijing Games.
First-leg relay specialist Carter has been a vital member of Jamaica's dominant squad, helping the Caribbean island win gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and the 2011, 2013 and 2015 world champs.
Nesta Carter (back right) was also a member of the Jamaican relay team which won gold in London in 2012. Photo: Photosport
Historically, the sanction for the use of Methylhexanamine has been a suspension of six months to a year and the loss of results from the period concerned.
Although his relay team mates Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and Michael Frater are not accused of doping, it is possible the IOC could strip them of their gold medals due to Carter's B-sample testing positive.
For instance, all members of the victorious American 4x400 relay squad at the 2000 Sydney Olympics were subsequently stripped of their medals after Antonio Pettigrew admitted a doping offence and had all his results from January 1997 onwards disqualified.
However, in other instances team members have been allowed to keep their medals.
When American Marion Jones was stripped of her two relay medals from the Sydney Games for doping offences, her team mates kept theirs after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said discussions over what to do with the medals won by any dope cheats exposed by the re-testing were ongoing.
"It is still being worked out," he said. "What we want to do, and are trying to do, is target athletes who have positive results and stop them from competing in Rio."
-Reuters
