Nigeria’s queen of the tracks in women athletics Blessing Okagbare will soon be decorated with a silver medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following the discovery that Russia’s Tatyana Lebedeva tested positive to drug test duirng the women’s long jump event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Okagbare won a bronze medal in the event for Nigeria. Consequently, Team Nigeria’s medals’ haul at the 2008 Olympic Games is now three silver medals (U-23 Eagles, women’s 4 x100 metres relay team and the women’s long jump and Chika chukwumerije’s bronze medal in taekwondo.
IOC’s website on Wednesday indicated that an intelligence-gathering process that started in August 2015 to curb drug cheats indicted Lebedeva (who also won silver in the women’s triple jump event in Beijing Olympics) alongside Jamaica’s Nesta Carter (gold medal winner in the men’s 4×100 metres relay) were both stripped of their respective medals.
According to the IOC, Lebedeva was found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in 2008.
The IOC has also requested the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to modify the results of the above-mentioned events accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.
Consequently, Maurren Maggi of Brazil retains her gold medal, Nigeria’s Okagbare will be elevated to the silver medal while Jamaica’s Chelsea Hammond joins the list of Olympic Games medallists by taking the bronze medal, having finished fourth when the eevnt was done in 2008.
