Former champion Pettigrew dead

(GETTY IMAGES)

The former world 400 metres champion Antonio Pettigrew has been found dead, the University of North Carolina said in a statement yesterday.

The 42-year-old American, who worked at the university as an assistant athletics coach, won the world title in 1991. His body was found in his car in Chatham County, North Carolina.

The sprinter was stripped of a gold medal he won in the 4x400 metres at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney after he admitted that he had used human growth hormone and the oxygen-boosting drug EPO.