Britain’s Kelly Sotherton is set to be upgraded to Beijing 2008 Olympic heptathlon bronze following the disqualification of Russia’s Tatyana Chernova.
On Monday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that reanalysis of Chernova’s samples from the Beijing 2008 Games had resulted in a positive test for the banned substance turinabol.
As a result, she is disqualified from the event and is set to be stripped of the Olympic heptathlon bronze medal that she claimed behind Ukraine’s Nataliya Dobrynska and USA’s Hyleas Fountain in China.
Finishing fifth in that competition had been Sotherton, who had claimed heptathlon bronze in Athens four years before. She had already been promoted by one position after the disqualification of Ukraine’s Lyudmila Blonska.
The 40-year-old is now set to become a three-time Olympic bronze medallist, as she is also due to be upgraded to a 4x400m medal from the Beijing Games following the retrospective disqualifications of the Russian and Belarusian teams.
“Re-analysis of Chernova’s samples from Beijing 2008 resulted in a positive test for the prohibited substance dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (turinabol),” read an IOC statement in part.
“The Russian Olympic Committee shall notably secure the return to the IOC, as soon as possible, of the bronze medal, the medallist pin and the diploma awarded in connection with the women’s heptathlon event to the Athlete.
“This decision enters into force immediately.”
![Kelly Sotherton [Beijing-2008]](http://amnestyghana.org/sporty/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Kelly-Sotherton-Beijing-2008.jpg)
On Monday, the IOC also announced that sprinter Maksim Dyldin has been disqualified from the London 2012 Olympic Games after reanalysis of his samples from the event also resulted in a positive test for turinabol.
Dyldin formed part of the Russian 4x400m relay team which finished fifth at London 2012 and as a result the team has been disqualified.
Source: AW
