Picture Credit: Twitter

Picture Credit: Twitter

Canada’s 4x100 meters men’s relay team will finally be receiving silver medals from the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, July 29. The Canadian Olympic Committee said that the athletes will be getting the medals at the Canadian national trials. Canada originally finished third at the Tokyo Games, but a doping charge against the runners-up British team meant that they have been pushed up to second place, and fourth place China has been pushed up to third place. 


Canada finished the race in 37.70 seconds, just fractions of a second off second placed Britain and first placed Italy. The team consists of Andre De Grasse , Aaron Brown , Jerome Blake and Brendon Rodney . The medals will be handed to the relay team with appropriate tradition, despite the odd situation, through a medal reallocation ceremony. 


Unintentional doping caused Britain to los e medals


The 4x100 relay, which was won by Italy in 37.5 seconds, was an event that faced significant controversy. Britain originally finished second, but runner CJ Ujah failed the doping test, testing positive for two banned substances. The chemicals were Ostarine and S-23, and Britain were stripped of their medals. While Ujah was initially handed a 22-month sentence for doping, it was later removed and he was acquitted of intentionally doping himself. The cause for the positive test was actually a GBP 10 substance the runner had been using unintentionally for weeks prior to the Tokyo Games. 


Ujah, for his part, has said that he deeply regrets the incident but that his conscience is clear now that he has been acquitted of knowingly doping himself. The runner expressed regret that he had brought shame to his country and made his teammates go through a hard time, all because of his reckless behaviour. 


He said, “You know what? I wish I had been tested right before the Olympics, so that I never went. That way, I would never have put these other three guys, my team-mates, through what they went through as well as myself.”