By Nick Butler at the Main Press Centre in Glasgow

Amantle Montsho the 2011 world champion has become the second failed doping case of Glasgow 2014 ©Getty ImagesBotswana's former world 400 metre champion Amantle Montsho has become the second athlete to fail a doping test here at Glasgow 2014.


The 31-year-old, who finished fourth in the 400m final here on Tuesday (July 29) behind a Jamaican trio led by Stephanie McPhearson, submitted a sample immediately after the final that tested positive for banned stimulant methylhexaneamine.

In a statement released this afternoon by the Commonwealth Games Federation, it was confirmed that Montsho had been notified of her A sample result and has asked for her B sample to be tested.

This will take place at the World Anti Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in London on Monday (August 4).

Following the results of this being known, the CGF Federation Court will reconvene to consider the matter further, with Montsho likely to be stripped of her result in Glasgow.

Montsho finished in a disappointing fourth place in the final behind Jamaican winner Stephenie Ann McPherson ©Getty ImagesMontsho finished in a disappointing fourth place in the final behind Jamaican winner Stephenie Ann McPherson ©Getty Images



The Botswanan has been one of the most consistent performers on the circuit in recent years, winning the 2011 World Championships title in Daegu before finishing runner-up two years later in Moscow.

She also won the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medal, becoming Botswana's first-ever gold medallist in any sport. 

Before this, at Athens 2004 she had become the first Botswanan woman to compete in an Olympic Games in any sport, and eight years later in London, she carried the Flag of the southern African nation in the Opening Ceremony, before finishing in fourth place in the final. 

For such a high profile athlete to test positive is a further blow for the sport of athletics following the high profile cases last year, involving sprinters Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson. 

It also marks the second failed test of Glasgow 2014, following the one experienced by Nigerian weightlifter Chika Amalaha in a sample submitted shortly after the 16-year-old won the gold medal in the 53kg weightlifting category last Friday (July 25).

After her B sample confirmed the positive result, Amalaha was officially stripped of her title yesterday, with gold being awarded instead to Dika Toua of Papua New Guinea.

Chika Amalaha has been stripped of the gold she was initially awarded in the under 53kg weightlifting ©Getty ImagesChika Amalaha has been stripped of the gold she was initially awarded in the under 53kg weightlifting ©Getty Images



The case involving Montsho also marks the latest in a growing number involving Methylhexaneamine, including three cases involving the substance at the Winter Olympics in Sochi earlier this year. 

These involved Latvian ice hockey player Vitalijs Pavlovs at Sochi 2014, Italian bobsleigh brakeman and former decathlete William Frullani, and Germany's former gold medal winning biathlete, Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle.

Nigerian sprinter Oludamola Osayomi also failed a test for the substance following her 100m victory at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Originally developed in 1944 as a nasal decongestant pharmaceutical drug, the substance was withdrawn from sale in 1983, only to be reintroduced 20 years later and distributed under a variety of different names as an energy-boosting dietary supplement.

Many experts have questioned how safe it is to take and in 2010 the American military issued a recall of all methylhexanamine-containing products from all military exchange stores worldwide.

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