FORMER WORLD CHAMPION sprinter Antonio Pettigrew has been found death in the back seat of his car.

The former sprinter, who was working as a coach at the University of North Carolina, was part of the United States’ 4x400m team that won gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but the team was stripped of its medals two years ago when Pettigrew admitted to doping.

University authorities are not sure whether his death was accidental or deliberate. It is reported that he was found to have taken a significant number of sleeping pills.

Its athletic director Dick Baddour told PA:

I don’t know any details other than that he was found in his car early this morning, not far from campus. I got a call around 4am and was told he had been found dead. We are deeply saddened to learn of Antonio’s death.

Pettigrew had been reported missing from his family home by his wife on Monday.

Pettigrew (42) had won the world 400m title in Tokyo in 1991, and had been part of the American teams that had claimed 4x400m gold at the 1999 world championships in Seville and at the Sydney games the follow year.

He conceded that he had taken drugs between 1997 and 2001 two years ago, however, when testifying in a trial against his former coach Trevor Graham, which resulted in the team – which had included Michael Johnson in 2000 – losing its medals.