Jamaicans given three-month ban

Blake won bronze at the 2006 world junior championships

Four Jamaican athletes have been suspended for three months after admitting taking a banned substance.

The four are sprinters Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson, Allodin Fothergill and Lansford Spence.

Each tested positive in samples taken at the Jamaican National Championships in June this year.

Commonwealth 100m champion Sheri-Ann Brooks also tested positive but this was thrown out because her B sample was tested without her knowledge.

Doctor Patrece Charles-Freeman, executive director of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (Jadco), accepted Monday's ruling from Justice Ransford Langrin, who chaired the Jamaica Anti-Doping Appeal Tribunal.

"I think the Appeal Tribunal understood the case and their decision was a fair one," said Charles-Freeman.

606: DEBATE Give your reaction to the three month bans given to the Jamaican athletes

Relay runners Blake, Fothergill, Spence and Anderson as well as Brooks were withdrawn by Jamaica from the World Championships in Berlin last month.

All five athletes tested positive for methylxanthine at Jamaica's championships which ran from 26-28 June, but were initially cleared by a disciplinary panel on the basis the substance was not on the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) banned list.

But Jadco then appealed against the verdict stating the substance had a similar structure to tuaminoheptane, a banned stimulant according to Wada.

Blake, who won bronze in the 100m at the world junior championships in 2006, is Olympic champion Bolt's training partner and has recorded the fifth-fastest time over 100m this year.

Anderson is also a 100m runner, while Fothergill and Spence compete in the 400m.