LONDON, June 3: Five-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson is to return the 4x400m relay gold he won at the Sydney Games in 2000 in the wake of former team-mate Antonio Pettigrew’s admission he had been taking drugs.

Pettigrew’s doping admission came in the perjury trial of athletics coach Trevor Graham, who oversaw disgraced sprint trio Justin Gatlin, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

The confession also followed drugs bans of four and two years respectively for Alvin and Calvin Harrison as well as a failed drugs test for Jerome Young, who were all also members of the victorious US team in Sydney.

Johnson announced on Tuesday that he will voluntarily return his gold to the IOC.

“I know that the medal was not fairly won and that it is dirty,” Johnson told the Daily Telegraph. “I will be returning it because I don’t want it. I feel cheated and betrayed.”—AFP