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http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...?newsfeed=true
Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk stripped of gold for doping
• New Zealander Valerie Adams now wins the shot put gold
Quote:
The Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk has been stripped of her Olympic gold medal after failing a doping test. The New Zealander Valerie Adams will now be awarded the gold, Russia's Evgeniia Kolodko will take the silver and China's Lijiao Gong will win the bronze.
Ostapchuk was tested twice, once on 5 August and again the following day after she had finished first in the women's shot put. The IOC says both samples indicated the presence of metenolone, which is classified as an anabolic agent under the 2012 Prohibited List.
Ostapchuk, 31, was competing in her third Olympic Games in London, and she finished fourth in Athens in 2004 and claimed bronze in Beijing four years ago. She threw 21.36m with her third attempt as she comfortably won the shot put competition from Adams, who threw 20.70m.
"The (Olympic committee) of Belarus is ordered to return to the IOC, as soon as possible, the medal, diploma and medallist pin awarded to the athlete in relation to the above-noted event," the IOC said in a statement.
Adams, the new gold medal-winner, said she was delighted. "I am speechless with this news. It is taking me some time to take this in," she said in a statement. "It is also encouraging for those athletes like myself, who are proud to compete cleanly, that the system works and doping cheats are caught."
The announcement that Ostapchuk had failed her tests came hours after the flame was extinguished at the closing ceremony with the athletes and officials heading out of London. A day earlier, the IOC President Jacques Rogge had proclaimed the fight against doping a success.
The Belarus team had already sent home the hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan because of suspicions over a sample provided after his silver-medal performance at the 2004 Athens Games.
Besides Ostapchuk, only one athlete tested positive for a banned substance after competing. The US judo fighter Nick Delpopolo was cited for traces of marijuana in his urine sample. He blamed "inadvertent consumption" of food baked with the substance. The IOC disqualified him from seventh place in the 73-kilogram class.
Seven more were caught in doping controls conducted since the official testing period for the games began on 16 July. One of the seven competed in London before her test result was known.
"I think that is a sign that the system works," Rogge said on Sunday. "I am happy about the fact that we could catch athletes who cheated, both before the games and at the games."
The IOC had said this would be its most extensive Olympic anti-doping program. It took almost 6,000 urine and blood samples, including no-notice tests ahead of athletes competing. Rogge cautioned that some samples are still being analysed and "we might hear something tomorrow or the day after. Hopefully not, but you never know."
The Syrian runner Ghfran Almouhamad tested positive for the stimulant methylhexaneamine two days before her 400m hurdles heat. She placed eighth and was eliminated before the IOC disqualified her.
Until this latest turn of events, the London Games were set to end with medal standings in all 302 events unaltered by doping scandals.
Three Beijing events were tainted during the games, and two more medals were changed months later when a new test for the blood-booster Cera was introduced. The signature men's 1,500m gold medal was stripped from Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain.
Rogge reminded that the IOC will store all samples from London and can reanalyse them, revise results and reallocate medals until the statute of limitations expires in August 2020.
"When there is no new tests, we wait until the last moment; if there is a breakthrough new test, we'll test immediately," he said.
Indeed, the next Olympic doping scandal could be from the 2004 Athens Games instead. Next week the IOC could announce up to five new disciplinary cases based on retested samples.
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The Netherlands stan hard for the Olympics, I see.
