Former US sprinter Antonio Pettigrew will return the Olympic relay gold medal he won in 2000 after admitting to doping during the Sydney Games. During last month's trial involving former athletics coach Trevor Graham, Pettigrew came clean about using EPO and human growth hormone from 1997 to 2003. Graham was found guilty of lying to federal investigators about his relationship to a steroids dealer. Pettigrew's decision to give up the gold for the 4x400-meter relay was expected, considering his testimony in the Graham trial. After brief negotiations with the US Anti-Doping Agency, the agreement was made public. Pettigrew gave back the medal and all the other prizes he'd earned since 1997, including world championships in the 4x400 relays in 1997 and 1999. The 40-year-old assistant track coach at University of North Carolina also accepted a two-year ban from athletics, though that point is largely symbolic given his age. He retired from track in 2002. Pettigrew's decision came a day after one of his relay teammates at the Sydney Olympics, Michael Johnson, said he would voluntarily give his medal back in the wake of Pettigrew's testimony. IOC officials said they will seek official verification of Pettigrew's admission and wait for the International Association of Athletics Federations to nullify the US gold medal result. After that, the IOC could officially disqualify the team and strip all the medals. The IOC would then also consider whether to upgrade the Nigerian team, which finished second, to the gold medal. Jamaica is in line to be bumped up to silver and the Bahamas to bronze. Johnson for tougher laws Tougher laws and more government involvement are badly needed in the fight against doping in sport, former Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson said on Tuesday. “When people think ‘I could go to jail for just using steroids,' then maybe that would help,” Johnson told Reuters in a telephone interview from San Francisco. The current system of banning athletes from the sport is not enough, the 200 and 400 meters world record-holder said. “You can safely say in the last four, five, six years the cheaters have been ahead and they have won.” “The only reason he (Pettigrew) has actually admitted to it is because he would go to jail for perjury if he did not admit to it,” Johnson said. Johnson said it was more difficult coming to terms with the fact that someone he had thought of as a friend had cheated. Even harder, Johnson said, was the realisation that he would no longer be known as a five-time Olympic gold medallist. – Agencies __
