The International Olympic Committee [IOC] has sanctioned nine more athletes - including six medal winners - after they tested positive in the reanalysis of stored samples from the Beijing Olympics.
The IOC has been gradually working its way through a backlog of cases thrown up by the more than 1200 samples it retested from Beijing 2008 and London 2012 in the build-up to the Rio Olympics.
On Tuesday afternoon, the IOC published further decisions with regards to several failed tests for the prohibited substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (Turinabol) from Beijing, which it was said "could not be identified by the analysis performed at the time of these editions of the Olympic Games".
They included Uzbekistan wrestler Soslan Tigiev, who won silver in the under- 74kg freestyle event; Ekaterina Volkova, Russia's bronze medallist in the women's 3000m steeplechase; Ukrainian over-75kg weightlifter Olha Korobka, who won silver; and Taimuraz Tigiyev of Kazakhstan, runner-up in the final of the men's 84-96kg freestyle wrestling event.
Also now disqualified are Belarus weightlifter Nastassia Novikava, the bronze medallist at women's 53kg division, who was found to have tested positive for both dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (Turinabol) and stanozolol, along with Andrei Rybakou of Belarus, awarded silver in the men's 85kg weightlifting event.
Other athletes whose results will now be expunged are Azerbaijan weightlifter Sardar Hasanov, following a positive test for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol), Spanish 100m hurdler Josephine Nnkiruka Onyia, for methylhexanamine, and Cuban long jumper Wilfredo Martinez, who had finished fifth, for the prohibite substance acetazolamide.
An IOC statement to announce the new positive tests from Beijing said: "The protection of clean athletes and the fight against doping are top priorities for the International Olympic Committee.
"To provide a level playing field for all clean athletes at Rio 2016, the IOC put special measures in place, including targeted pre-tests and the reanalysis of stored samples from Beijing 2008 and London 2012, following an intelligence- gathering process that started in August 2015."
Last week, two more athletes - Russian weightlifter Apti Aukhadov and Ukrainian pole vaulter Maksym Mazuryk - were disqualified from London 2012 following positive retests for the anabolic steroid Turinabol.
PA
