'Carter will remain my friend'

Track and field megastar, Usain Bolt, declared yesterday that whatever the outcome of a possible appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) by the legal team of Jamaican sprint relay teammate Nesta Carter, the two will remain friends.

Jamaica's 4x100m squad - Bolt, Carter, Asafa Powell, Michael Frater and Dwight Thomas, which won the sprint relay final at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China handed over the gold medals to the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) yesterday.

Public discussion

This was after Carter was disqualified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from the Games, after he retroactively tested positive for the banned substance methylhexaneamine.

Bolt told STAR Sports that he does not know how the other affected members of the team are feeling, as he has not spoken with them since Wednesday's ruling.

"I haven't had a discussion with anybody," Bolt said. "I haven't seen anybody in a while so I guess when we see them, we'll have a discussion."

It has been public discussion that Bolt and his teammates may now harbour bad feelings towards Carter, especially since being stripped of the medal means he can no longer claim to have won a "triple treble" of Olympic gold medals in the 100m and 200m as well as the 4x100m relays.

However, Bolt has dismissed this, saying his friendship with Carter is too strong to be affected by the decision.

"I'm not gonna despise anybody for anything," Bolt said. "Nesta and I are still friends. We came up through the ranks in high school so we're still friends and I really don't have a problem with Nesta."