Heartbroken Kilty cannot forgive CJ
RICHARD KILTY says he will never forgive CJ Ujah for costing him his Olympic medal. Six months after winning 4x100m relay silver in Tokyo, Kilty and his GB teammates learned they are to be stripped of their medals due to Ujah’s failed drugs test.
Kilty said: “It’s officially gone and it’s utterly devastating.as a teammate I feel let down. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive him.”
Ujah is the third Briton, after 1988 judo player Kerrith Brown and 2002 slalom skier Alain Baxter, to test positive at an Olympics.
But he is the first whose actions have cost innocent teammates the greatest moment of their careers.
Kilty, 32, added: “My dream was always to give my son an Olympic medal to show all the other kids at school. My family and friends had a surprise party booked for me.
There was a parade planned around my town in Teesside. But then the news broke and all that just came tumbling down.
“Rather than a homecoming celebrating our achievement, it was coming home to explain. I didn’t want to leave the house. It was just exhausting trying to explain myself.we didn’t hear from CJ so I had no idea.”
The first the team did hear from Ujah (left) was a Zoom call six weeks ago, when he told them the problem was with contaminated supplements not certified for safe use.
Kilty said: “People working full-time (at UK Anti-doping) do an incredible job educating us. Only CJ knows the truth... either CJ’S taken drugs or he has taken supplements which are not tested. Either way it’s reckless and it’s not playing by the rules.
“To lose it (the medal) because one person has just been sloppy and reckless...
it’s heartbreaking.”