Athletics: Decision due on US gold medal appeal

LONDON - The Court of Arbitration (CAS) will rule on Thursday on a plea by the US Olympic Committee to save the gold medals won by the American 4x400m relay team at the 2000 Olympics.

Last year CAS ruled that world 400m champion Jerome Young, one of six members of the Sydney squad who included five times Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson, should have been banned from the Games after failing a drugs test in the previous year.

The independent Lausanne-based body had been asked by the International Association of Athletics (IAAF) to recommend stripping all the gold medals and elevating Nigeria from second place.

In October the US Olympic Committee (USOC) asked CAS to order the IAAF and International Olympic Committee "to desist in their efforts to change the results".

Two other members of the US team, twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison, have been banned for subsequent doping offences while Young is now banned for life after a positive test for the blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) last year.

- REUTERS