NESTA Carter is being advised by his legal team to appeal the guilty verdict the International Olympic Committee handed down earlier yesterday regarding an anti-doping violation at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.Carter’s sample from the 2008 Games was re-tested and found to contain the specified substance methylhexanamine. The stimulant was placed on the WADA list of banned substances in 2004 as a stimulant but was re-classified as a specified substance in 2011.
The ruling means Jamaica’s sprint relay team of Carter, Usain Bolt, Michael Frater and Asafa Powell has been stripped of its gold medals. It also means that Bolt no longer holds the distinction of winning three gold medals at three consecutive Olympic Games.
However, there is still room for recourse for the beleaguered sprinter, who has been on a provisional suspension since early 2016.
Carter’s local attorney, Stuart Stimpson, said an appeal is expected to be filed within the 21 days in which the athlete is required.
He believes the athlete, whose 9.78 seconds set in 2010 makes him the sixth fastest man in history, has good grounds on which to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
“The ruling gives rise, we believe, to good grounds for appeal,” Stimpson told Sportsmax.tv.
“There wasn’t due consideration to all the submissions that we would have made and the key points in it,” Stimpson added.
He said, however, that they did expect the IOC ruling.
“It had been one of my thoughts that it (a guilty verdict) could happen, based on the tribunal we had earlier,” he said.
“We had in our minds that the process wouldn’t end here, that it would continue onto CAS.”
Meanwhile, Carter’s teammates have remained mum on the issue. Neither Michael Frater nor Asafa Powell was willing to comment on the development that has cost each of them an Olympic medal.
Both athletes leave for Australia later this week where they will represent the Usain Bolt All-Stars in the Melbourne Nitro-Athletic Series.