The sprinter Reece Prescod has become the first British athlete to forgive CJ Ujah publicly for failing a drugs test and costing Team GB a 4x100m relay silver medal at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Prescod, who ran the 100m for Team GB in Japan and was a reserve for the 4x100m team, revealed that he had reached out to Ujah – who has blamed a contaminated supplement after the banned substances ostarine and S23 were found in his urine – and hoped to see him running again.
“We’ve spoken and me and CJ are cool,” said Prescod. “It was his birthday, I reached out to him, we had a conversation. He was very upset by what unfortunately happened.
“Some of the boys went to his party, a small gathering of his close family and friend. He’s still a person at the end of the day. You can’t just rule someone out.”
Prescod’s stance is notably more sympathetic than that of the British Olympic Association and his other teammates. Richard Kilty, for instance, who was one of the other members of the 4x100m team, has called Ujah’s behaviour “sloppy and reckless” – and said he would never forgive him.
What particularly frustrated Kilty was that Ujah was using supplements from a manufacturer that was not part of the Informed Sport programme, under which a sample of each batch is retained to be tested if necessary. This meant he had no defence when banned substances were found in his urine in Tokyo.
Ujah is now facing a four-year ban, although he is hoping that his contaminated supplement defence may get that reduced.
“I personally think he’ll run again, definitely,” added Prescod. “Of course I’d like him to. Got to see where his legal situation goes but CJ was extremely talented, one of the most talented sprinters we’ve ever had. It would be nice for him to get back on a track and run again. It’s one of those unfortunate things that can happen.”
Prescod, meanwhile, competes over 100m in the Birmingham Diamond League on Saturday hoping to make up for lost time after overcoming injuries and the weight he piled on during lockdown due to too many Deliveroo orders.
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The talented 26-year-old also believes he is a much stronger athlete after a hard winter with his coach, Marvin Rowe, and is capable of running both the 100m and 200m at major championships.
“Marvin is actually building a stronger Reece, a more robust Reece,” said Prescod, who faces a strong field on Saturday including the 200m Olympic champion, Canada’s Andre De Grasse. “So when it actually comes down to the championships, when you have to run round after round after round, I will be ready.”
“I know what is required, and that’s to run sub-10 regularly,” he added.