Bolt may be stripped of 2008 gold as team-mate Carter tests positive

JAMAICAN sprinter Nesta Carter has been named in reports as one of the athletes who retrospectively failed a drug test at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper reported the 30-year-old, a twotime Olympic gold medallist in the 4x100m relay, returned a positive test for the banned stimulant methylhexanamine when his A sample was retested.

The news, if confirmed, could have major implications for Usain Bolt, who, as a team-mate of Carter, could be in danger of losing his relay gold from Beijing.

The I nt er n at io n a l Olympic Committee retested 454 samples from t he Bei ji n g G a me s , wi t h 31 testing positive.

Carter’s personal best over 100m of 9.78 seconds ranks him as the sixthfastest man in history. He won bronze in the individual event at the 2013 World Championships.

Any possible sanction will depend on the result of the retesting of his B sample, which is awaited.

The World Anti-Doping Agency website lists methylhexanamine as a specified stimulant which is banned in competition.

Wada says methylhexanamine has been considered a stimulant since 2004 and was reclassified in 2011 to become a specified substance.

It defines a specified substance as one which is more likely to be susceptible to a credible non-doping explanation and therefore can come with a reduced sanction.

News about Carter, if confirmed, would deal a further blow to the credibility of athletics, which is still looking to recover from the revelations about statesanctioned doping in Russia, which has seen the country’s athletes banned from international competition.

A dec is i o n about their participation at the Rio Olympics in August will be made by the sport’s world governing body the IAAF on June 17.

The reputation of the men’s 100m, the sport’s blue-riband event, has also come under threat, with two-time drug cheat Justin Gatlin posing a serious, if so far unsuccessful, challenge to the domination of Bolt, dubbed the saviour of athletics.

The retesting of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics were targeted at athletes who could potentially participate in Rio. The retests from London revealed 23 positives out of 265 samples.