Oludamola stripped of gold medal as Pearson steps up attacks October 13, 2010
.
In the latest twist to the bizarre women’s 100m sprint at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, the woman who was third across the line is now the gold medallist.
St Vincent and the Grenadines sprinter Natasha Mayers has been awarded the gold following the suspension of Nigerian Osayemi Oludamola for a positive drugs test.
The race took just over 11 seconds to complete, but it took five days to find an official winner.
Oludamola initially finished second in a race won by Australian Sally Pearson, who was later disqualified for an earlier false start.
The Commonwealth Games Federation on Tuesday said testing of Oludamola’s ‘‘B’’ sample confirmed a finding of the prohibited substance Methylhexaneamine and she would be stripped of the gold medal.
The silver medal from the sprint has now gone to England’s Katherine Endacott while the bronze goes to Bertille Delphine Atangana of Cameroon, who was fifth past the line.
Earlier, Pearson stepped up her condemnation of Nigerian Osayemi Oludamola, who crossed the line second but was handed gold in Pearson's ill-fated 100m final, later recording a positive test to a stimulant banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, but set to be downgraded to ''non-specified'' status next year.
''It's good to know they're still catching them but it's disappointing to know there's still a drug cheat out there,'' said Pearson who, having been stripped of gold for a disputed false start, had called the positive test ''a joke.''
''I'm glad I still beat her. Obviously I didn't get the medal but it's still nice to run and know that I could beat her. It's been a bit of a joke really but what can you do? I wasn't a medallist on the night and I'm not now [in the 100m].
''You just have to put up with it; that's sport. I'm going out there drug-free. I'm racing to the best of my ability and what else can I do? I love the sport and I'm going to do everything I can to keep the drugs out of sport but there's always going to be a few.''
Pearson, who ate about five Tim Tams after her hurdles victory, said the past week had been ''amazing''.
''[But it's been] the hardest week of my life,'' she said. ''I don't know how I was able to overcome the 100 metres disappointment but I had to block it out of my mind and not think about it as much as possible. As soon as I crossed the finish line in the hurdles it all just came welling up again. It all came out.''
