The men’s 4 x 100m relay that won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics last summer has already received a silver medal, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) announced in a press release Thursday morning.
This change follows the disqualification of the Great Britain team, whose 2nd place was officially revoked after one of its members received a positive doping test showing the presence of banned substances.
The news was confirmed last month by the British Olympic Association, which then said it had received an official request to return the silver discs to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The request was sent after the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against British sprinter Chijindu Ujah in February.
Ujah was part of the British relay along with Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake. The latter finished 2nd behind Italy in August, just 1 hundredth of a second.
The sample provided by Ujah after the race, however, found traces of two banned substances, ostarine and S-23, which are actually selective androgen receptor modulators for the muscle skeleton.
The Canadian team consisting of Jerome Blake, Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse and Brendon Rodney finished 3rd in the final with a time of 37.70 s. China, which followed at the foot of the podium, will inherit a bronze medal from the Canadians.
We are happy that they received the silver medal they deserved in the men’s 4 x 100m relay of the Tokyo 2020 Games. While it is frustrating that we still see doping cases robbing athletes of their time at the Games, this situation reinforces the importance of the integrity and protection of clean sport.said COC President Tricia Smith.
Canada won a medal in the men’s 4x100m relay at the Olympic Games for the second time in a row, after winning bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Moreover, it was the fourth medal in Canadian history at this event, won 25 years after Canada’s victory at the Atlanta Games in 1996.
Source: Radio-Canada
