'Can't forgive': Teammate turns on Olympic runner over stripped medal
British sprinter Richard Kilty has hit out at teammate CJ Ujah over the doping controversy that's resulted in Team GB's men’s 4 x 100m relay team being stripped of their silver medal.
It was announced on Friday that Great Britain were being stripped of the 4x100m medals claimed at the Tokyo Games last summer after Ujah was found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
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Kilty, who competed with Mitchell-Blake, Zharnel Hughes and Ujah, said on Saturday that his biggest sadness would be that he wouldn't be able to send his five-year-old son to school to show off his dad's Olympic medal.
The sprinter has opened up further about the heartbreak of seeing the reward from years of hard work taken away from him and Team GB's other relay members, because of one person's mistake.
Kilty admitted that he would never forgive Ujah over the ugly controversy.
“Now he’s made that mistake I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive him because me, Zharnel and Nethaneel have lost a medal at the hands of his mistakes.
“CJ is ultimately going to be the one who is going to get banned himself, it’s affecting his own career.
“But again we’ve worked so hard these last six years.
“To finally reach the pinnacle and win an Olympic medal, and then lose it because one person has just been sloppy and reckless with what‘s gone into their body.
“It’s heartbreaking and devastating.
“We had a Zoom call from CJ roughly six weeks ago and that was it.
“For the last 20 years of my career – the same as the other two lads – we have worked our arses off.
“We have followed the rules, in and out. I check every supplement I put into my body. Only CJ knows the truth.
“We’re all gutted. We’re all confused and upset.
“It‘s an Olympic medal at the end of the day. It was the last medal that I had to tick off my list.
“You’ve got to check your supplements. You’ve got to take accountability into what goes into your body and not be reckless.”
Ujah did not challenge the decision but claimed he had "not knowingly or intentionally doped", however, Kilty said British Athletics and UK Anti-Doping had "hammered home" their rules, asking athletes not to use uncertified supplements.
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"They are the rules you have to follow and I have for the last 21 years. It's just devastating that other teammates haven't followed the rules as strictly as the rest of us. And we've been burned by that," Kilty told BBC Radio.
"You are responsible for everything that goes into your body - everything. It doesn't go through your mind once and it never crossed my mind ever that one of our members failed a test, not in a million years.
"Only CJ knows the truth. Either he took drugs, or it was contaminated in his supplements which weren't tested. Either one is not following the rules.
"The happiness for me was to win an Olympic medal and give it to my son for him to take it into school and say, 'my dad won an Olympic medal'.
"I never got to do that. The motivation is for the next two and a half years to make sure that job gets done properly next time."
However, Kilty's other teammate Mitchell-Blake offered his support to Ujah saying: "He is my brother, I love him and I know he wouldn't do anything intentional.
"It's unfortunate that things happen of this nature, but he's taken accountability and that is all you can ask for.
"I accept his apology wholeheartedly. I've known him for a long time, we were friends before the sport and we'll continue to be friends.
"It has to be heart-wrenching for him, and naturally it's heart-wrenching for us."
with AAP
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