Team GB Olympic relay silver handed to Canada after CJ Ujah doping rules breach
Ujah’s sample contained the prohibited substances ostarine and S-23
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Your support makes all the difference.The Olympic 4x100 metres relay silver medal stripped from Great Britain over Chijindu Ujah’s doping rules breach in Tokyo has officially been reallocated to Canada.
Ujah was tested on the day of the final last year – August 6 – and his sample contained the prohibited substances ostarine and S-23.
Ujah, along with team-mates Zharnel Hughes, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Richard Kilty, were disqualified and stripped of the medal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s Anti-Doping Division in February.
The International Olympic Committee’s executive board rubber-stamped the resulting reallocation of medals on Thursday, with China moving up into the bronze medal position.
The decision to strip Team GB of the relay medal meant their overall Tokyo count dropped to 64 – one less than they achieved at the London 2012 Games.
Ujah, 28, did not challenge the finding that he had committed an anti-doping rule violation but said the violation had been caused by him unknowingly consuming a contaminated supplement.
I'm sorry that this situation has cost my team-mates the medals they worked so hard and so long for. That is something I will regret for the rest of my life
His case transferred to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) to consider a ban, an issue which will be determined by its disciplinary tribunal. He has been provisionally suspended since the positive test came to light last August.
Ujah apologised to his team-mates when the disqualification was confirmed, adding: “I’m sorry that this situation has cost my team-mates the medals they worked so hard and so long for and which they richly deserved.
“That is something I will regret for the rest of my life.”
The British Olympic Association said at the time: “All athletes, wherever they are from, deserve to go to the start line knowing they are in clean competition. It is with deep sorrow that colleagues and opponents of Ujah were not able to be reassured of this fact in Tokyo.
“Having spent the last few years retrospectively awarding numerous British athletes with medals they should have won on the day at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Sochi 2014, we understand first-hand the hurt and loss doping can cause.
“On behalf of everyone in British sport, we unreservedly apologise to the athletes whose moment was lost in Tokyo due to the actions of Ujah.”
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