France finally reap Olympic reward for Gay doping

France were on Saturday belatedly awarded bronze medals for the men's 4x100m relay at the 2012 Olympics after the United States were disqualified due to Tyson Gay's doping ban.

The US quartet initially placed second three years ago behind an Usain Bolt-led Jamaica foursome that won in a blistering new world record of 36.84 seconds, with Trinidad and Tobago in third and France fourth, just four-hundredths of a second adrift.

Gay had already returned his own medal after accepting a year's suspension in June 2013 after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid in two out-of-competition tests.

The 2007 treble world champion had also accepted the disqualification of all results to July 15, 2012, the date he first used a product that contained the banned drug -- forfeiting all prizes obtained from that date.

The US team also comprised Justin Gatlin, who was running after having served two doping bans, Trell Kimmons, Ryan Bailey and heat runners Jeff Demps and Darvis Patton.

Now recognised as silver medallists are Richard Thompson, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender and Keston Bledman, while the newly-crowned French bronze medallists are Christophe Lemaitre, Pierre-Alexis Pessonneaux, Ronald Pognon and Jimmy Vicaut.

In a ceremony at the Stade de France during the Paris Diamond League meet, the French quartet were driven around to a podium in a London taxi to the Beatles' "All you need is love" and awarded their medals with no little pomp.

But they will not keep their medals for long, as the generic type handed to them must be personally inscribed so must be returned to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) before being reassigned with the proper engraving.

And Trinidad and Tobago are still to return their bronze medals for their upgrade following the IOC's decision to strip the US team after Gay's positive doping offence.
Source: AFP