Britain’s 4x400m girls from Beijing 2008 are set to be upgraded to bronze – more than eight years after finishing FIFTH
Russia have already been stripped of their gong and now their Belarus rivals are the latest athletes to be kicked out for doping
BRITAIN'S 4x400m girls are set to be upgraded to Olympic bronze - more than eight years after finishing FIFTH with their Belarus rivals the latest athletes to be kicked out for doping.
Christine Ohuruogu, who days earlier had won the individual 400m title at the Bird's Nest Stadium, Marilyn Okoro, Nicola Sanders and Kelly Sotherton, missed out on the podium back at Beijing 2008.
But with silver medallists Russia already stripped of their gong and now Belarus who finished ahead of them in fourth out of the running too they will be upgraded to bronze.
The USA remain gold medallists with Jamaica upgraded to silver.
Sviatlana Usovich, who also reached the semi-finals of the 800m, was in the 4x400m team and after a banned substance was found in recent re-testing the whole team will now be disualified.
It follows re-testing of samples at the Beijing Games and London 2012 under the biological passport system.
It will also be the THIRD extra medal Britain's track and field stars will get from China. Javelin ace Goldie Sayers is set to be upgraded to bronze too, after Russian Mariya Abakumova who took silver tested positive, along with the men's 4x400m including Martyn Rooney.
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Sotherton, who won Olympic heptathlon bronze at Athens 2004, said: "I've just learned I could be a double Olympic medallist. I'm happy but absolutely f*****g fuming and sad."
Dave Collins, then British head coach was SACKED after the Beijing Games when he failed to meet a target of five medals instead winning just four at the time. The tally is now up to seven already.
Former British athletics head coach Charles van Commenee, who replaced Collins in 2009, told SunSport this summer that he believes medal targets are becoming meaningless in the wake of the doping scandals engulfing Beijing and also London 2012.
The outspoken Dutchman led the athletics team to glory at the London Games with six gongs including four gold medals - three on Super Saturday. But he still quit his job having set a personal target of eight medals for the team including a solitary gold.
International Olympic chiefs tonight sanctioned seven new athletes for failing tests.
As well as Usovich Belarusian team-mate Anna Miankova will also be stripped of her Olympic hammer gold from Beijing and disqualified from London 2012 where she placed seventh after banned substances turned up in re-analysis from BOTH Games.
Miankova threw an Olympic record 76.34m to win the title ahead of Cuba’s Yipsi Moreno eight years ago, while her personal best of 78.69m set in July 2012 currently lists her fourth on the world all-time rankings.
Natallia Mikhnevich, who claimed shot put silver at Beijing 2008, will also lose her medal after reanalysis of her sample resulted in a positive test for methandienone and stanozolol.