Great Britain’s javelin thrower Goldie Sayers and the 4x400m relay team will be upgraded to bronze medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics following confirmation their Russian rivals have retrospectively failed drug tests.
The International Olympic Committee has confirmed the javelin silver medallist Maria Abakumova and the 400m runner Denis Alexeev, a member of the bronze medal-winning relay team, had tested positive for banned substances at the Games and have been disqualified and ordered to return their medals.
The entire Russian relay team have been disqualified as a result of Alexeev’s doping, meaning the British squad of Andrew Steele, Robert Tobin, Michael Bingham and Martyn Rooney will move up from fourth place.
Abakumova, whose positive retest was first reported in the Russian media in May, and Alexeev, who failed to make it past the first round of the individual 400m, both tested positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol).
The IOC also announced that Inga Abitova, who finished sixth in the 10,000m in Beijing, had also failed a retrospective drugs test, as had the cyclist Ekaterina Gnidenko, who finished eighth in the Keirin at London 2012.
The IOC has been retesting stored doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics using the latest technology as part of the fight against drug cheats.