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I am absolutely delighted with the news that Jessica Ennis-Hill has been upgraded to the Gold Medal for the 2011 World Championships Heptathlon event after Tatyana Chernova has been stripped of the title for doping.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has made the judgement and applied an additional two year ban on top of the ban she received in 2009 and added "All results between 15 August 2011 and 22 July 2013 are annulled and the athlete will forfeit any titles, awards, medals, points and prize and appearance money obtained during this period."
There were suspicions that something wasn't right about Chernova and Jess was very tight lipped about everything at the time. Chernova's veiled hints that Jess was merely a "bad loser" now ring all the more hollow. To taunt an opponent from the top of the podium, when you have knowingly, systematically and blatantly cheated is particularly cynical.
But Jess now has the medal and the right to call herself a triple world champion in her event. Justice is served in the end.
Meanwhile, Russian middle-distance runners Ekaterina Sharmina and Kristina Ugarova have also been sanctioned after their cases were taken to CAS by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Ugarova was named in an independent World Anti-Doping Agency report last November which called for Russian athletes to be banned, but threatened legal action to clear her name.
Time will tell how that pans out. |
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2-12-2019 20:48:01