Sotherton to finally get Beijing bronze

Britain’s Kelly Sotherton will finally receive her third Olympic bronze medal, nine years late, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed Tatyana Chernova’s appeal against a doping conviction.

The Russian heptathlete was retrospectively disqualified from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing earlier this year when the International Olympic Committee retested a stored urine sample and found it positive for the steroid turinabol.

Chernova, having already been caught in re-tests of samples from the 2009 World Championships, appealed against the decision to sport’s highest court, holding up the reallocation of her medal.

But that can now go ahead, giving 41-year-old Sotherton a bronze for an event in which she initially finished fifth but has now twice been upgraded thanks to doping bans.

Already a heptathlon bronze medallist in 2004, Sotherton has also seen her fifth-place finish in the women’s 4x400 metres relay in Beijing turn to bronze after Russia and Belarus were subsequently thrown out for doping.

The decision also means Chernova, who was originally awarded bronze medals in 2008 and 2012 and a gold at the 2011 Worlds, has now lost all her major titles

She was not the only disappointed party yesterday, as Uzbekistan’s most decorated Olympian, freestyle wrestler Artur Taimazov, also lost his gold medal from Beijing.

Taimazov, who keeps his golds from Athens 2004 and London 2012, has since become a member of Russia’s parliament.

Picture: PA. Kelly Sotherton will finally receive her third Olympic bronze medal.