ODESA, DECEMBER 6th, 2012, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE ― The International Olympic Committee executive board has disqualified the medalist Yuriy Bilonog from Odesa of his 2004 gold due to doping and ordered him to return the medal that he won in the Athens Olympics, Context-Prichernomorie correspondent reports.

The press service of the International Olympic Committee stated today, 6 December.

According to the press service, the International Olympic Committee stripped gold medalist Yuriy Bilonog (Ukraine, shot put), silver medalist Ivan Tsikhan (Belarus, hammer throw), and bronze medalists Svetlana Krivelyova (Russia, shot put) and Irina Yatchenko (Belarus, discus) of their medals. This brings the total number of doping cases at the Athens Games to 31, after 26 positive tests at the time. That is a record for any Games.

INFORMATION: Yuriy Bilonog is a Ukrainian shot putter. Bilonog won the gold medal in his event at the 2004 Summer Olympics. At the 2000 Olympics he had finished fifth. In 2002 he was European champion. Personal best result is 21.81 m (Kyiv, 3 July 2003). Bilonog, who now lives in Odesa, is 200 cm tall and weighs 132 kg.