Chemos upgraded to Olympics bronze, Worlds silver by CAS

Milcah Chemos has been upgraded to London 2012 Olympics bronze and 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships silver after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) stripped Russian Yuliya Zaripova of her gold medals at both events for doping on Thursday.

The decision when CAS upheld an appeal by world governing IAAF over selective doping punishments imposed by the country’s anti-doping agency, RUSADA.

For London, Chemos who ran 9:09.88 will take the third medal behind Tunisia’s Habiba Ghribi and Ethiopia’s Sofia Assefa who moved up the podium to gold and silver.

“I’m happy that those who are using drugs, their days are numbered. It’s a big lesson to those planning to use drugs,” the delighted Chemos told Citizen Digital on phone when contacted.

This is the second medal from London 2012 Kenya has picked over doping after Asbel Kiprop was given the men 1500m gold after originally taking silver behind Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzi who was disqualified for doping.

The Moscow 2013 world champion who missed her title defense last year in Beijing will also move up to silver for the 2011 edition in Daegu, South Korea and compatriot Mercy Njoroge to bronze as Ghribi becomes a world champion.

Zaripova ban covers the period from July 20th 2011 to July 25th 2013.

“The IAAF challenged what it felt was a ‘selective’ disqualification of results, submitting that all results achieved by the athletes from the date of their first abnormal sample to the date they accepted a provisional suspension should be disqualified.

“In each case, the appeal filed by the IAAF has been upheld and the decision issued by the disciplinary anti-doping committee of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency for each athlete has been modified,” CAS said in a statement.

In another communique, world body IAAF declared the process of nullyfying affected results and re-distributing medals was already underway.

“The IAAF is grateful to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for the decisions it published today upholding the IAAF’s appeals concerning the cases of six international-level Russian athletes: Olga Kaniskina, Yuliya Zaripova, Sergey Bakulin, Valeriy Borchin, Vladimir Kanaykin and Sergey Kirdyapkin.

“The IAAF will immediately proceed to the effective disqualification of results, re-rankings and reallocation of medals in all competitions under its control. With respect to the Olympic Games, the IAAF will inform the International Olympic Committee of the CAS decisions and request the disqualification of results and the reallocation of medals,” the world body announced.

Russia that is serving an international ban from competition after being found culpable of systematic doping now loses two World Championship gold medals and an Olympic gold after the CAS decision.

Sergey Kirdyapkin originally kept his London 2012 Olympic gold medal in the 50-kilometre walk, Sergey Bakulin kept his 2011 World Championships gold in the same event, and Zaripova was not stripped of her 2011 World Championship steeplechase gold.

Olga Kaniskina had also been able to keep her 2012 Olympics silver medal in the 20km walk.

The medals will now be taken away from the Russian athletes and are likely to be redistributed by the IAAF and, for the Olympic medals, the International Olympic Committee.

The IAAF questioned the “selective” disqualification of results and saw CAS support its case.

Each athlete had seen their anti-doping case come to light due to irregularities in their biological passports.

-Additional material from Irish Times