Russia's Zaripova stripped of London steeplechase gold medal

[November 22, 2016]  ZURICH (Reuters) - Russia's Yuliya Zaripova has been stripped of the gold medal she won in the women's 3,000 meters steeplechase at the 2012 London Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Monday.

Zaripova, who tested positive for turinabol, was among 12 athletes, including seven medalists, who were disqualified from their events following re-testing of samples, the IOC said.

Zaripova had been widely expected to lose the medal after she was banned for two-and-a-half years by Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA in January 2015 after her biological passport showed abnormalities.

He results from June 20 to Aug. 20 2011 and July 3-Sept. 3 2012 have been annulled. These periods included the London Games but not the world championships in South Korea in 2011, where she also won gold.

The IAAF, the governing body for athletics, subsequently protested to CAS, sport's highest tribunal, over what it said was selective sanctioning by RUSADA over the cases of six athletics, including Zaripova.

CAS upheld the IAAF's appeal in March.

The other athletes to lose their medals on Monday were all weightlifters.

They included Moldova's Cristina Iovu, bronze medalist in the women's 53 kilos; Russian Nataliya Zabolotyana and Belarussian Iryna Kulesha, silver and bronze respectively in the women's 75 kilos; and Armenia's Hripsime Khurshudyan, bronze medalist in the women's 75+ kilos.

The others were Russian Aleksandr Ivanov and Anatoli Ciricu, silver and bronze respectively in the men's 94 kilos.

Russia's Yuliya Zaripova receives her gold medal during the women's 3000m steeplechase victory ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium August 7, 2012. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

The IOC, which stores samples for a decade to test with newer methods or to analyze performance-enhancing substances that have yet to be identified, says a total of 98 samples have come back as positive in re-testing from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

It has been naming the guilty athletics, and stripping them of their medals where appropriate, in batches.

(Writing by Brian Homewood, editing by Ed Osmond)

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