Tears of joy as GB squad land Olympic bronze medal

Great Britain’s four-man bobsleigh pilot John Jackson admitted he “cried for five minutes” after learning he and his teammates are set to land retrospective Winter Olympic bronze medals.

Jackson, along with Joel Fearon, Stuart Benson and Bruce Tasker, finished fifth at Sochi 2014 but the disqualification of two Russian crews who finished above them means that, pending appeal, the Brits will be upgraded to third.

The International Olympic Committee announced on Tuesday that it had disqualified three members of the fourth-placed Russian crew, led by Alexander Kasjanov, as a result of the findings of the Oswald Commission hearings into state-sponsored doping during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

The move follows the stripping of the Alexander Zubkov’s gold medalwinning sled in similar circumstances last week, and means that Great Britain is set for a fifth medal from Sochi, making it the most successful Winter Games in the nation’s history.

Jackson said: “I’ve just sat down and cried for the last five minutes – that’s how emotional it feels. I thought I’d got my head round it – that we missed out and we can’t go back – but it’s just hit me how hard we worked and how much we put into the season to achieve that goal.

“We’ll never get on the Olympic podium, but it’s all about the memories of that process. To be part of what will hopefully now be Britain’s most successful Winter Olympic team is a great feeling.”

In a statement, the IOC said: “The International Olympic Committee has published new decisions from the Oswald Commission hearings. Three Russian bobsledders, Alexander Kasjanov, Aleksei Pushkarev and Ilvir Khuzin, have been sanctioned.

“[The athletes] are found to have committed antidoping rule violations pursuant to Article 2 of the IOC Anti-doping Rules applicable to the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, and are disqualified.”