Retired sprinter Nesta Carter avoided the maximum punishment for a second doping violation on Wednesday when Jamaica’s Independent Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel handed him a four-year ban for the use of the banned drug Clomiphene.
The 36-year-old Carter, who won four world championship relay medals for Jamaica before retiring earlier this year, faced an eight-year ban after testing positive for the testosterone-boosting substance in an out of competition test in March this year.
In 2017 Carter served a three-month ban as the result of a positive test for the stimulant methylhexaneamine in a retroactive test of a sample taken at the 2008 Olympics.
That decision resulted in Usain Bolt and Jamaica losing their 4x100m relay gold medals from the Beijing Games. Carter and his team mates retain their gold medals from the sprint relay at the 2012 London Olympics.
Therefore, they reasoned, it fell outside the 10-year period within which multiple violations must fall under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules.
Carter said he accepted the decision and regretted the failure on his part.