Athletics: Runners may get to keep medals

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld an appeal by US officials over the gold medals won by the American squad in the 4x400m relay at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Yesterday's decision means five-times Olympic champion Michael Johnson keeps his medal from the event. However, fellow squad member Jerome Young should lose his because of a doping violation, the court said.

The athletics world ruling body, the IAAF, had recommended to the International Olympic Committee that the American squad be stripped of their medals because of a doping violation by Young in 1999.

The recommendation came after the Lausanne-based court ruled in 2004 that Young should not have been allowed to run in Sydney because of a 1999 positive test for nandrolone that was overturned by a US appeals panel after a secret hearing.

The US Olympic Committee disagreed that the entire team should be penalised and appealed to the court, whose decisions are binding, to order the IOC and IAAF to "desist in their efforts to change the results".