Team GB star CJ Ujah stripped of National Lottery funding over Tokyo silver medallist’s failed drug test
CJ UJAH has been stripped of domestic athletics funding following his Olympics drugs violation.
The sprinter is suspended from the sport after testing positive for banned substances at the Tokyo Games in August.
The case has gone to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the GB team that won 4x100m relay silver behind Italy could be stripped of their medals.
That would mean heartache for Ujah’s Tokyo team-mates Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake.
Londoner Ujah, 27, was on Olympic Relays funding – between £21,000 and £28,000 – over the past 12 months.
He insists he is not a cheat and denies any wrongdoing.
And if he can prove his innocence in the CAS court then he could possibly request funds – which are provided through the National Lottery – for the 2022 season.
Olympic head coach Christian Malcolm said: “It was a bit of shock when we found out about the test.
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“It’s very unfortunate, especially the hard work that the whole team had put into it. We’e still waiting to find out what the outcome of that will be.”
British Athletics Performance Director Sara Symington added: “CJ is currently suspended from the sport so we were unable to consider him in this selection process. That was the rationale.”
A group of 67 athletes have been offered membership to join the Olympic World Class Programme pool of cash.
This includes Keely Hodgkinson, 19, who came from nowhere to win an Olympic 800m silver medal and the European indoors title.
Scottish runner Andrew Butchart has been removed from Olympic Podium Potential funding of £10,000 to £16,000 despite finishing 11th in the 5,000m Olympic final.
Athletics bosses say this was for ‘performance’ reasons not due to his embarrassing comments about allegedly faking Covid travel tests on a podcast.