Russian heptathlete Tatyana Chernova must forfeit her 2011 World Championships gold medal and her 2012 Olympic bronze medal for a blood doping violation, according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Chernova, previously banned by Russia’s Anti-Doping Agency from 2013 to 2015 for a failed retest of a 2009 sample for an anabolic steroid, was given a further three-year, eight-month ban by the court Tuesday. The previous two-year ban will be deducted from the new ban that’s backdated to Feb. 5, 2016.
Additionally, all of Chernova’s results from Aug. 15, 2011, to July 22, 2013, are annulled, a stretch that includes her medals at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics. Under Chernova’s previous penalties, all of her results from Aug. 15, 2009, to Aug. 14, 2011, were annulled, a sanction period ending just before the 2011 Worlds.
There are no records of the 28-year-old Chernova competing since 2013, according to the IAAF and Tilastopaja.org databases.
At the 2011 World Championships, Chernova beat Great Britain’s Jessica Ennis-Hill by 129 points. In April 2015, Ennis-Hill reportedly said she felt she deserved the gold medal because of Chernova’s doping.
“Frustration isn’t a strong enough word,” Ennis-Hill said then, according to the Telegraph. “You train hard for all those years and then people do things like that. It doesn’t seem like she has served a ban. I’m not happy about how the ban has been handled. I can’t really understand it myself.”
Ennis-Hill stands to add the 2011 World title to her golds in 2009 and 2015. She would match Swede Carolina Kluft for the most world heptathlon titles.
Germany’s Jennifer Oeser would be upgraded to 2011 Worlds silver, with Poland’s Karolina Tymińska potentially getting the bronze medal.
In the 2012 Olympic heptathlon, Lithuania’s Austra Skujytė could be upgraded to bronze.
MORE: Ennis-Hill’s place in heptathlon history
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