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Yuriy Belonog stripped of Olympic gold
11:58 / 06.12.2012

The International Olympic Committee executive board 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.

The others are hammer throw silver medalist Ivan Tskikhan of Belarus and two bronze medalists ― women's shot putter Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia and discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus.

The IOC said it will ask the International Association of Athletics Federations to get the medals back from the four athletes and readjust the results and rankings from the Athens Games.

Until then, no decision will be taken on reallocating the medals. Adam Nelson of the United States finished second in the shot put in Athens behind Bilonog and would stand to move up to gold.

In 2004, the Athens Games produced a record 26 doping cases and six medalists ― including two gold winners ― were caught at the time. The retroactive tests bring the number of Athens cases to 31, including 11 medal winners and three gold medalists.