South Africa to Lose Gold Medal After World Relay Champion Thando Dlodlo Is Banned for Doping

• South Africa will lose its gold medal that was won at the World Relay Championship in May last year
• This comes after Thando Dlodlo, who was on the team of four in the 4x100m race, was banned for testing positive for a banned substance
• Dlodlo will now have to sit out competing in any sanctioned events for the next two-and-a-half years

South Africa sprint relay world champion team is facing the bleak prospect of having its gold medal stripped.

Thando Dlodlo, one of the quartet that stunned the world in 2021, received a two-and-a-half-year ban for using the prohibited susbtance testosterone "and its related compounds". According to the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sports, his anti-doping rule violation was "the presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolites or makers in an athlete's sample.

Dlodlo, Gift Leotela, Clarence Munyai and Akani Simbine won the gold medal at the World Relay Championship hosted by Poland in May last year. According to TimesLIVE, Dlodlo tested positive at the SA championships in Pretoria a few weeks ago, which resulted in his hefty ban.

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The article also reported that prize money from the World Relay Championship pending the outcome of the case. It is believed that the ban could have been as long as four years, but Dlodlo's early admission of guilt resulted in a reduction.

SA Doping Institute for Drug-Free Sport (Saids) CEO Khalid Galant said on Tuesday the quartet has no option but to return the medals. If precedent is to follow, Italy's 100m Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs and teammates Eseosa Desalu. Filippo Tortu and Davide Manenti, who finished in second place, will automatically be promoted to first place.

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