Athletics' world governing body, the IAAF has stripped Jerome Young of his US 4x400m relay gold medal from the 2000 Olympics, saying he should have been banned because of doping.

Young competed in the Sydney Games despite testing positive in June 1999 for the steroid nandrolone. He was cleared to compete after an appeal to USA Track and Field (USATF) overruled a two-year ban.

The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) took that decision to appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport last month and won, the court ruling that Young should have been banned for doping.

"As a consequence of Jerome Young's ineligibility to compete following his doping offence, all relevant results are annulled, including those achieved as part of a relay team during the period of ineligibility from 26 June 1999 to 25 June 2001," the IAAF said in a statement after meeting.

Young ran in two preliminary rounds for the US relay but not in the final, where Michael Johnson, Alvin and Calvin Harrison and Antonio Pettigrew captured gold. Olympic and IAAF officials could take all the medals or only Young's.

The IAAF ruling could lead the International Olympic Committee to strip the other members of the relay team of their medals.

In that case, Nigeria would become the new gold medallists with Jamaica promoted to silver and the Bahamas bronze.

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