adminLAUSANNE. – South Africa’s Caster Semenya could receive her second Olympic gold medal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport stripped Russia’s Mariya Savinova-Farnosova of her title.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport yesterday stripped Savinova-Farnosova of her 2012 London Olympics 800m gold medal and banned her for four years for doping.
The women’s 800m race was won by Savinova-Farnosova in 1:56.19 with Semenya finishing second with a time of 1:57.23.
Another Russian, Ekaterina Poistogova, was third.
However, in November 2015, after an investigation, a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommended that Poistogova be given a life-time ban.
If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decides to reallocate the medals from the 2012 final, Semenya will receive the gold medal, to go along with her gold from Rio in 2016.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said there was “clear evidence” that Savinova was involved in doping from the eve of the European Championship in Barcelona in 2010 until the 2013 world championships in Moscow — including the 2012 London Games.
The ban was back-dated to start on August 24, 2015.
CAS said all prizes won between July 26, 2010 and August 19, 2013, are forfeited.
The CAS acted as the main tribunal in the case as the Russian athletics federation is suspended by the world body, the International Association of Athletics Federations because of its doping controversy. – AFP.
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