The men's 4x400m relay world record set 10 years ago by the United States team has been scrapped by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). That follows a confession by one of the quartet, Antonio Pettigrew, that he used illegal banned drugs.
"Following the recent confession of Antonio Pettigrew, who has admitted to using human growth hormone and EPO between 1997 and 2003, the IAAF Council, today decided to cancel the current world record for men's 4x400m, set by a US team including Pettigrew, with immediate effect," IAAF said in a statement. "This means that the world record will now be 2:54.29, set by the USA. team during the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart," it said.
The former record was 2:54.20 set on July 22, 1998 by Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, Tyree Washington and Michael Johnson. A final decision about the disqualification of Pettigrew's other results, dating back to January 1, 1997, will be taken by IAAF at a future meeting. Following Pettigrew's confession, the US 4x400m relay team was stripped of the gold medal they won in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last week. Pettigrew, now 41 and retired, admitted in May that he had used performance-enhancing drugs for about six years.
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