Washington to get 2003 gold medal

Washington is unhappy the presentation will be in the US rather than Berlin

Retired sprinter Tyree Washington is finally going to get the 2003 world 400m gold medal he has been pursuing.

The American won silver in Paris in the 2003 race, but has campaigned for the gold after winner Jerome Young admitted to doping violations in 2008.

USA Track & Field will give Washington a newly-cast medal on Saturday at the US championships in Eugene, Oregon.

"Getting the medal will be part of my peace," said Washington. "It is not going to be all of my peace."

If they are going to give me my medal, why isn't the IAAF sending me to Berlin? Tyree Washington

Young received a lifetime ban after a 2004 positive test for the banned blood booster Erythropoietn (EPO), his second doping offence, but he was not stripped of all results subsequent to 1999 until 2008.

Washington, though, has been recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) as the 2003 outdoor champion since 2005.

"I have been treated poorly," added the 32-year-old Californian Washington. "The IAAF gave Jerome Young a lifetime ban so they knew I was going to be the world champion yet they held on to the gold.

Tom Fordyce's blog This is the extraordinary story of a sportsman betrayed by his closest friend, of a life destroyed by someone else's cheating and deceit and of a sport struggling to cope with the aftermath of a doping explosion

"When I wanted to get help in procuring the medal from my federation, USATF, and the IAAF, they turned their backs."

Washington was also unhappy that the presentation would be in the US and not at the IAAF world championships in Berlin in August.

"That is not where I won the world championship," said Washington. "If they are going to give me my medal, why isn't the IAAF sending me to Berlin?"