Olympic doping tests lift Japanese hammer thrower
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LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND -- Koji Murofushi’s Olympic results are like the weather.
Wait a little while, and they will change.
Of course, a little while turned out to be nearly four months this year for the Japanese hammer thrower, a star of literally and figuratively huge proportions in his country.
Murofushi, 34, will see his fifth place at the Beijing Olympics turned into a bronze medal after the International Olympic Committee’s executive board decided today to disqualify the silver and bronze medalists from Belarus, because they tested positive for the steroid testosterone in an Aug. 17 doping control.
Four years ago in Athens, Murofushi moved up almost immediately from silver to gold when champion Adrian Annus of Hungary was found to have falsified the doping control, apparently by using a device called the ‘Original Whizzinator’’ to give a sample that did not come from his own urine that day.
The delay this time came after the culprits, two-time loser Vadim Devyatovskiy and three-time world champion Ivan Tsikhan, each requested further hearings on his case.
Devyatovskiy, 31, gets a lifetime Olympic ban, while Tsikhan, 32, will be banned from the next OIympics -- as soon as the international track federation levies the expected two-year suspension.
Krisztian Pars of Hungary will move up from fourth to claim the silver medal.
Redistribution of the medals may take a while, though, because the Belarusians announced their intention to appeal the IOC decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The IOC also disqualified another athlete today, Polish kayaker Adam Seroczynski, who tested positive for the steroid clenbuterol after finishing fourth in the 1,000-meter kayak doubles in Beijing.
Nine athletes now have been disqualified from the Beijing Games. Six equestrian positives, all involving the animals, still are pending.
Thirty-nine other athletes were prevented from competing in Beijing as a result of doping controls in the six weeks leading up to the start of the Games.
-- Philip Hersh
