Sports
Okagbare to get Beijing Olympic Silver as IOC strips Lebedeva of medal
Women’s long jump second runner-up at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, Blessing Okagbare, is set to be awarded the silver medal after the supposed silver medalist Tatyana Lebedeva tested positive to drug test.
The Russian Lebedeva alongside Jamaica’s Nesta Carter (gold medal winner in the men’s 4×100 metres relay) were both stripped of their respective medals on Wednesday after they were found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in 2008.
A statement in the official website of the IOC reads:
“Tatyana LEBEDEVA, 40, of Russia, competing in the women’s triple jump event and the women’s long jump event in which she ranked 2nd and for which she was awarded a silver medal, has been disqualified from the Olympic Games Beijing 2008. Re-analysis of Lebedeva’s samples from Beijing 2008 resulted in a positive test for the prohibited substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol).”
Read Also: Usain Bolt loses Olympic gold as team-mate tests positive to banned substance
According to the IOC, the stripping is following an intelligence-gathering process that began in August 2015 to curb drug cheats, by which about 454 doping samples were retested.
The IOC has also requested the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to modify the results of the above-mentioned events accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.
The Nigerian track queen Okagbare will now get the silver medal while Jamaica’s Chelsea Hammond will move up from fourth position to third and Brazil’s Maurren Maggi keeps the gold medal.
Okagbare’s upgrade will now mean that Team Nigeria’s medal plunder at the 2008 Olympics is three silver – one by the U-23 Eagles, another by the women’s 4×100 metres relay team, and thirdly by Okagbare – as well as one bronze medal in taekwondo by Chika Chukwumerije).
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