Russian runner stripped of Olympic title

MONACO — Russian runner Natalya Antyukh was disqualified from her 400-meter hurdles win at the 2012 London Olympics for doping, and Lashinda Demus of the United States is set to be upgraded to the gold medal.

Antyukh was already serving a four-year ban in a previous case judged by the Court or Arbitration for Sport last year that stripped her results from 2013 to 2015.

The new ruling based on historical evidence recovered from a Moscow testing laboratory database further disqualified Antyukh in all of her events from July 15, 2012 through June 29, 2013, track and field´s Athletics Integrity Unit said.

At the 2012 Olympics, on Aug. 8, Demus finished 0.07 seconds behind the Russian winner.

Now aged 39, Demus is in line to become an Olympic champion for the first time and get a gold medal from the International Olympic Committee to add to her world title won in 2011.

The bronze medalist 10 years ago, Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic should be upgraded to silver, and the bronze is set to go to Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica.

“Following AIU charges based on LIMS data, Russian athlete Natalia Antyukh has been banned for the use of a Prohibited Substance/Method,” the Athletics Integrity Unit said in a statement.

“It will become final and binding after 45 days if there is no appeal,” according to the AIU in an email.

“Thereafter, the AIU will send a sanction memo to the [World Athletics] Competition Department so they can proceed with the disqualification of the Athlete’s results. The AIU will then write to the IOC to confirm the Athlete’s sanction and let them know that they may now proceed with the re-allocation of medals and the update of the IOC database.”

Last year, Antyukh was banned four years in a doping case related to evidence from the 2016 McLaren report on Russian doping. Her results from July 2013 through December 2015 were also stripped. She last competed in 2016, according to World Athletics.

In the 2012 Olympic 400m hurdles final, Antyukh, then 31, lowered her personal best by 22 hundredths of a second to hold off Demus by seven hundredths for the gold medal.