BERLIN (Reuters) -- Five Jamaican track and field athletes expected to run in the 4x100 and 4x400 metres relays at the world championships have been pulled off the team, the IAAF said on Wednesday.

Sprinters Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson and Sheri-Ann Brooks as well as Allodin Fothergill and Lansford Spence had tested positive for the stimulant methylxanthine but were allowed to race by the IAAF pending an appeal.

"Jamaica will not enter these athletes," International Association of Athletics Federations spokesman Nick Davies told reporters.

"The news I have is that they will not be running," he said.

Asked whether it was a Jamaican decision to remove them from the relay teams, Davies said: "Yes".

The athletes were initially cleared by the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission's (JADCO) disciplinary committee.

However, JADCO itself then appealed the verdict saying the substance had a similar structure to tuaminoheptane, a banned stimulant according to the World Anti-Doping Agency.