Commonwealth Games 2014: Amantle Montsho suspended after failing drugs test following women's 400m final

Montsho becomes the second athlete to test positive for a banned substance during the Games

Matt Majendie
Sunday 03 August 2014 06:37 BST
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Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica and Amantle Montsho of Botswana compete in the Women's 400 metres
Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica and Amantle Montsho of Botswana compete in the Women's 400 metres (Getty Images)

Former 400m world champion Amantle Montsho has been suspended with immediate effect after testing positive for a banned stimulant.

Montsho is the long-time rival of England’s Christine Ohuruogu, the athlete from Botswana winning the world title in 2011 only to be agonisingly pipped on the line by Ohuruogu in her title defence in Moscow last year.

She was far from her best in the individual 400m event in Glasgow, where she had been the pre-event favourite only to finish fourth – after which she was tested.

It was the “A” sample from that test which was found to contain methylhexaneamine, a stimulant on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of prohibited substances, and her “B” sample will be tested in London on Monday.

Montsho, 31, will not be able to compete at any of the lucrative Diamond League meetings remaining this season until an official hearing into the failed test is held.

She was the first female athlete from Botswana to compete at an Olympics when she made her Games debut in Athens in 2004.

It is the second failed test at Glasgow 2014. Nigerian gold medallist Chika Amalaha was suspended and stripped of her weightlifting title in the 53kg category after her test sample showed traces of amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide.

Wales’s 400m hurdler Rhys Williams was sent home before his competition after his own positive while Gareth Warburton, set to compete in the men’s 800m for Wales, was denied a place in Glasgow after a doping violation.

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