The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Pavey’s world bronze
British runner upgraded due to rivals’ doping
Jo Pavey is set to receive the first global medal of her career – 10 years late – after it was confirmed she would be upgraded to 10,000metres bronze at the 2007 world championships.
The 43-year-old will be promoted from fourth place at the Osaka championships after world governing body IAAF announced that Turkish silver medallist ElvanAbeylegessehad been disqualified for doping.
The latest list of IAAF doping sanctions revealed Abeylegesse hadfailedanin-competition test during the championships.
Pavey, who competed in her fifth Olympics in Rio last year said: “It is frustrating. I am
RACING RETURNS
thrilled with the news but it is kind of bittersweet because when I think back to those championships Iwasrunning as hard as I could, I had gotmyself in the best shapeanditwasahot and humid day.
“I was in a medal position right until the line but couldn’t hold on.
“Instead of being a moment where I was thrilled at getting my first medal, Iwaslyingonthe track feeling totally despondent and frustrated, I felt that I had let everyone down.”
Abeylegesse’s disqualification means American Kara Goucher, who passed Pavey on the home straight in Osaka, is due to be upgraded to silver.
The Turk will also lose her 5,000 and 10,000m silver medals from t h e 2008 Olympics.
She has been retrospectively banned for two years from 29
RESULTS ROUND-UP
September 2015, while all her results from August 25, 2007, to August 25, 2009, have been annulled.
Pavey added: “I had a few years in the prime of my career where I kept just missing out on medals and I almost had to go back to the drawing board and think how I could find that extra.
“How I could not keep getting it just a bit wrong on the day.
“Now I look back and I think about the other medals I might have had and actually I was doing a lot of things right but with the cheats out there it doesmake it so much more difficult and so frustrating.”