Controversial former Britain sprinter Linford Christie will not carry the Beijing Olympic torch across London, after Greater London Authority said on Friday that he was invited by mistake.
The 1992 Olympic 100 meters champion, who was handed a life ban from the Games after testing positive for the steroid nandrolone in 1999, was reportedly invited by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone to be amongst the 80 torchbearers when the Olympic Flame comes to London in April 6, as part of a worldwide torch relay.
It provoked a widely-spread controversy, in which the International Olympic Committee, the British Olympic Association (BOA) and opposition MPs all voiced disagreement, before a GLA spokesman said in a statement on Friday that the invitation had been a mistake.
"The decision to invite Linford Christie was taken by officials and was a mistake. The Mayor merely issued letters to those they had decided to invite as a formality," the statement said.
An earlier GLA statement said that the reports that claimed the mayor invited Christie were "inaccurate".
"The mayor himself had the right to nominate five torchbearers. Linford Christie was not one of them.
"Linford Christie has made it clear he will not be participating in the torch relay," the earlier statement said.
Christie's agent Sue Barrett told BBC that Christie was unlikely to be involved because "it does clash with the period when he is out of the country doing warm weather training with his athletes".
Christie, the only Briton to win 100 meters gold medals at Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European Championships, is planning to be in Beijing as coach to 200 meters specialist Christian Malcolm.
But so far the BOA has reiterated that its ban on Olympic accreditation for Christie remains in place and he will not be permitted access to the Olympic Villages or the trackside, either in Beijing or London in 2012.
(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2008)