Horace Dove-Edwin

Who is Horace Dove-Edwin?

Francis Horace Dove-Edwin is a retired Sierra Leonean sprinter who specialized in the 100 metres.

Participating in the 1988 Summer Olympics, he failed to make it through to the second round. In 1990 Dove-Edwin migrated to London together with his mother. His first major athletics event after his migration was the 1991 Summer Universiade held in Sheffield. At the 1992 Summer Olympics he competed in 200 metres, reaching the quarter finals.

In 1994 Dove-Edwin won a surprising silver medal in 100 metres at the Commonwealth Games, behind the expected winner Linford Christie but ahead of Michael Green and Frankie Fredericks, becoming the first medal winner in athletics for Sierra Leone. However, a few days later as he prepared to run in the semi final heat of the 4 x 100 metres relay event, he learned that the doping test sample he had delivered after the 100 metres final contained traces of the banned substance stanozolol. Dove-Edwin was given a two-year ban by the IAAF and stripped of the medal, whereas Green was promoted to silver medalist and Fredericks to bronze medalist. Commenting on the suspension in retrospect in 2002, Dove-Edwin stated that he "was a victim of circumstances and a procedure that was full of flaws", and that he "never took steroids or anything".