MARIYA Savinova-Farnosova has been given a four-year doping ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and been stripped of her London 2012 800 metres gold.
The 31-year-old, better known by her maiden name of Savinova, also loses her 2011 world outdoor title, 2013 world silver medal and 2010 European gold.
Savinova’s Olympic gold and 2011 world title now go to South Africa’s Caster Semenya, making her a double Olympic champion, while Britain’s Jenny Meadows’ European bronze is upgraded to silver.
CAS said there was “clear evidence” Savinova had been doping from July 2010, just before the European Championships, to the 2013 World Championships in August.
“As a consequence, a four-year period of ineligibility, beginning on 24 August 2015, has been imposed and all results achieved by her between 26 July 2010 and 19 August 2013, are disqualified and any prizes, medals, prize and appearance money forfeited.”
Unfortunately for Meadows, so often a victim of cheats during her career, Savinova keeps the 2010 world indoor title she narrowly beat the British runner to as that race was in March, four months before the European championships.
Savinova joins a long list of Russian athletes who have been punished for their part in the country’s state-sponsored doping programme.
All three of the Russian women who made the 800 metres final at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu – Ekaterina Kostetskaya, Yuliya Rusanova and Savinova – have now been disqualified, having robbed Meadows of a place in the final. Meadows ran the ninth fastest time of the semi-finals to miss out on qualification by one spot.
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