Johnson to return Sydney relay gold

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — Five-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson is to return the 4x400m relay gold he won at the Sydney Games in 2000 in the wake of former team-mate Antonio Pettigrew's admission he had been taking drugs.

Pettigrew's doping admission came in the perjury trial of athletics coach Trevor Graham, who oversaw disgraced sprint trio Justin Gatlin, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

The confession also followed drugs bans of four and two years respectively for Alvin and Calvin Harrison as well as a failed drugs test for Jerome Young, who were all also members of the victorious US team in Sydney.

Johnson, an outspoken critic of doping in athletics, announced on Tuesday that he will voluntarily return his gold to the International Olympic Committee.

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