Early Olympic gold for Christmas

CHRISTMAS came early for this country's 2008 men's 4x100m relay team who were officially awarded gold medals by the International Olympic Committee today.

Collecting gold retroactively will be Richard Thompson, Marc Burns, Keston Bledman, Emmanuel Callender and Aaron Armstrong.

Brian Lewis, president of the TT Olympic Committee, received the correspondence from the IOC today and was understandably elated. The TT athletes have been given the choice of how the medals will be reallocated, with one of the options being a presentation at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.

The TT quartet was upgraded to gold after Jamaican Nesta Carter tested positive for a banned substance.