Jones's relay team-mates stripped of medals

Team-mates of disgraced American Olympic champion Marion Jones paid the price for her use of banned substances when they were stripped of the relay medals they won at the 2000 Sydney Games yesterday.

The executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled that the US teams that won gold in the 4x400 metres and bronze in the 4x100 would lose their medals after Jones admitted she had used steroids in 2000.

"The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) will be asked to return the medals and certificates," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told a news conference.

"The IOC acknowledges that the three other athletes have paid the price for Marion Jones's guilt."

Jones, the first woman to win five athletics medals, three of them gold, at a single Olympics, had already been stripped of her medals.

Jearl Miles-Clark, Monique Hennagan and LaTasha Colander won the 4x400 metres with Jones while Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards and Nanceen Perry placed third in the 4x100 in Sydney.