NO PROBLEM WITH NESTA – BOLT
TRACK AND Field legend Usain Bolt has said that whatever the outcome of a possible appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) by the legal team of Jamaican sprint relay teammate Nesta Carter, the two will always remain friends.
Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team of Bolt, Carter, Asafa Powell, Michael Frater and Dwight Thomas, which won gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China had to hand over the gold medals to the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) yesterday.
This was after Carter was disqualified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from the Games, after retroactively testing positive for the banned substance methylhexaneamine.
NO RECENT CONTACT
Bolt told The Gleaner that he does not know how the other affected members of the team are feeling as he has not spoken with any of them since Wednesday’s ruling.
“I haven’t had a discussion with anybody,” Bolt said. “I haven’t seen anybody in a while, so I guess when we see them, we’ll have a discussion.”
It has been public discussion that Bolt and his teammates may now harbour bad feelings towards Carter, especially since being stripped of the medal means he can no longer claim to have won a ‘triple treble’ of Olympic gold medals in the 100m and 200m sprints as well as the 4x100m relays.
However, Bolt has dismissed this, saying his friendship with Carter is too strong to be affected by the decision.
“I’m not gonna despise anybody for anything,” Bolt said. “Nesta and I are still friends. We came up through the ranks in high school, so we’re still friends, and I really don’t have a problem with Nesta.”
Bolt said that all that is on his mind at this moment is continuing to win in 2017, although he has not yet finished planning which meets he will compete in this season.
“It’s all about winning, and that’s always my focus. That’s what I want,” Bolt added. “My calendar’s not made up yet, and we’re (he and his management team) just taking our time and working our way from there. I’m not sure which race I’ll be running yet though.”
I’m not gonna despise anybody for anything ... . Nesta and I are still friends.