KINGSTON • Embattled Jamaican sprinter Nesta Carter will return to the track this weekend in his first meeting since he was stripped of his Beijing Olympics gold medal after a retroactive test uncovered a banned substance in his sample.

His re-tested sample from 2008 was found to have traces of the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine, the International Olympic Committee said last month.

Jamaica's 4x100m relay team that included Usain Bolt were stripped of their gold medals.

Carter has said he would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The 31-year-old, who has not raced competitively for 17 months due to injury and then because he was notified of the positive test, will run at the Western Relays in Montego Bay, his manager Bruce James said.

Carter has not been banned by world governing body the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and he is clear to run until his appeal has been heard.

"Having consulted the IAAF Medical and Anti-Doping Department, it appears that Mr Carter is not currently provisionally suspended," IAAF chief executive Olivier Gers wrote in a letter in response to a query by Jamaican Athletics President Warren Blake.

Carter, also part of Jamaica's 4x100m relay team that won gold at the 2012 London Games, has until Feb 15 to file his appeal with CAS.

One Olympic champion who has been banned is Beijing 100m hurdles gold medallist Dawn Harper-Nelson. She has been suspended for three months, effective from Dec 1, 2016, after testing positive for the banned diuretic hydrochlorothiazide, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) said.

Usada said it had accepted her explanation that her positive test was caused by medication prescribed by a physician to treat hypertension.

REUTERS