Turkish runners Abeylegesse, Bulut stripped of medals for doping

MONACO

Ethiopian-born Turkish athlete Elvan Abeylegesse has been stripped of the two silver medals she claimed at the Beijing 2008 Olympics over 5,000m and 10,000m, along with her 10,000m silver medal from the 2007 World Championships, for doping violations.

Her Turkey teammate  Gamze Bulut, meanwhile, will not be awarded the London 2012 Olympic gold medal she was in line to receive from compatriot Aslı Çakır Alptekin after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) annulled her results from 2011 onwards.

The IAAF announced on March 29 that Bulut, second in the 1,500m race at London 2012, will also lose the European title she won in Helsinki in 2012 as a result of an “athlete biological passport (ABP) case.”

Abeylegesse was banned for two years last year by the Turkish Athletics Federation after being revealed as one of 28 athletes for whom adverse findings were revealed by the IAAF. This followed re-testing of samples from the 2005 and 2007 World Championships.

It comes after the IAAF confirmed she had failed a test at the event in the Japanese city, meaning her results from July 25, 2007 to July 25, 2009 were annulled.

Bulut was detected following analysis of her ABP, which monitors selected biological variables over time that indirectly reveal the effects of doping rather than attempting to detect the doping substance or method itself.

March 29’s decisions mean Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain is in line to claim the London 2012 Olympic 1,500m gold medal, with Russia’s Tatyana Tomashova set to be upgraded to silver.

Tomashova, however, served a two year doping ban from 2008.

Sweden’s Abeba Aregawi, a former world champion, finished fifth in London and stands to receive bronze but she has also been implicated in doping after she failed for meldonium last year.

The 26-year-old was facing a four-year ban before her suspension was lifted by the Swedish Doping Commission in July after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) issued new guidelines.

Shalane Flanagan of the United States is set to be awarded Abeylegesse’s Beijing 2008 5,000m silver, with Kenya’s Linet Masai taking bronze.

Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar is in line for 10,000m silver from the Games in the Chinese capital, while bronze will be claimed by Sylvia Kibet, also of Kenya.

Abeylegesse was second behind Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia in the 10,000m at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. Her silver would go to original bronze medallist Kara Goucher of the U.S., with Great Britain’s Jo Pavey taking possession of the bronze.