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Hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan formally stripped of 2005 world title, Olympic silver medal over doping

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has formally stripped Belarusian hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan of the silver medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics and the gold medal from the 2005 world championships over a failed doping test.

As a result of the annulment of Mr. Tsikhan's results, another Belarusian hammer thrower, Vadzim Dzevyatowski, has been named the winner of the 2005 world championships. Mr. Dzevyatowski, now a member of the House of Representatives, has also risen to the third place in the final rankings at the 2004 Olympics.

Interestingly, the IAAF announced in March 2013 that samples taken from Mr. Dzevyatowski at the 2005 world championships had also been found to contained banned performance-enhancing substances following a reexamination.

Messrs. Tsikhan and Dzevyatowski won the gold and silver, respectively, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They lost their Olympic medals after testing positive for the presence of exogenous testosterone, but won appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and retained their medals.

Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Astapchuk has been formally stripped of the world title from the 2005 championships and the gold medal from the 2012 Olympics over a positive test for banned drugs. //BelaPAN