Evidence shown in a court here yesterday appeared to prove that Great Britain were cheated out of a gold medal at the 1997 World Championships in Athens. In the 4x400 metres relay, the United States won in a tight finish, with Britain 0.18sec behind in second. One of the Americans in that quartet was Antonio Pettigrew. The Britain four that day were Roger Black, Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch and Mark Richardson.

Yesterday in court, where Trevor Graham, Pettigrew's former coach, is facing charges of lying to federal investigators, Pettigrew gave evidence in which he admitted that he had been on a programme of banned performance-enhancing drugs, including human growth hormone (HGH) and erythropoietin (EPO), that he had been sent by Angel Heredia, a Mexican dealer. One of the pieces of evidence shown to the jury was a Fedex receipt sent by Heredia to Pettigrew that was dated July 17, 1997, the month before the World Championships.

So, the 4x400 metres gold in Athens becomes yet another of the medals that have been proved to have been won illegally. Pettigrew continued to receive drugs from Heredia until 2001, which suggests that the US relay team's golds at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and at the World Championships in Seville in 1999 and Edmonton, Canada, in 2001 are tainted, too.