Russian trio disqualified from Beijing Olympics after re-analysis of samples
Russia's appalling doping record continues to bring shame on the country as three more of its athletes were belatedly disqualified from the Beijing Olympics for testing positive in the re-analysis of samples from the last two Games.
The International Olympic Committee has re-tested hundreds of stored samples from 2008 and 2012 this year, catching 98 dopers, including 14 Russians from athletics alone.
The most notable of the three cases completed by the IOC's disciplinary commission in Rio on Friday relates to 400m runner Anastasia Kapachinskaya, who finished fifth in the individual event in Beijing and claimed a silver medal in the relay.
Russia now loses that relay result and the team must return their medals. Jamaica will be upgraded to silver, with Belarus taking bronze and the British quartet fourth.
This is the second positive test of Kapachinskaya's career - this time for two steroids - and the 36-year-old's case will now be referred to the International Association of Athletics Federations with a life ban being almost certain.
This, however, will remind many athletes and fans of former World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound's remark that Russia "sabotaged" London 2012 by sending a doped team to the Games, as Kapachinskaya was also part of Russia's silver medal-winning relay squad there.
The two other Russians to be removed from Beijing's record books are Alexander Pogorelov and Ivan Yushkov, both testing positive for steroids.
Pogorelov, who won a decathlon bronze medal at the 2009 world championships, finished fourth in the multi-discipline event in Beijing, while Yushkov was 10th in the shot put. Their cases will also be sent to the IAAF for sanctions to be decided.
