London 2012: Team GB's shotputter Carl Myerscough speaks out against body-building supplements

Team GB shotputter and discus thrower Carl Myerscough warns young athletes about body-building supplements (Getty Images)

Team GB shotputter and discus thrower Carl Myerscough is warning aspiring athletes to keep clear of body-building supplements after his own haunting doping ban experience.

Myerscough, 32, who is 6ft 10in tall and nicknamed The Blackpool Tower, was competing today in the men’s discus after failing to make the final of the shot put on Friday.

Myerscough, who has always protested his innocence, received a lifetime ban after testing positive for steroids in 1999 but the ruling was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Myerscough said: “I never knowingly took what I was accused of, but maybe I was naïve in all the different supplements I took and made mistakes. It’s incredibly easy to fall foul of the rules.

“I bought the wrong thing off the shelf as a teenager — and it haunted me for the next decade.”

He added that checking the label is not good enough: “Be incredibly careful — take no risks, get advice and approval of anything you take.”