Shropshire Star

Team GB edge closer to bobsleigh bronze as four more Russians get Sochi bans

Great Britain could soon have another Winter Olympics medal

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Great Britain could soon have another Winter Olympics medal after double bobsleigh champion Aleksandr Zubkov was named among four more Russian athletes banned for doping at the 2014 Games.

Russia’s flag-bearer in the opening ceremony, Zubkov piloted the two-man and four-man bobs to victory in Sochi.

The country’s president Vladimir Putin later recognised the achievements with his nation’s highest civilian honour.

But the International Olympic Committee announced on Friday that Zubkov’s Sochi results have been wiped out.

With Russia’s second four-man team also under investigation, Britain may be in line for a belated bronze medal. The second Russia team finished in fourth place originally.

John Jackson, Bruce Tasker, Stuart Benson and Joel Fearon originally finished fifth but the various investigations into Russia’s state-sponsored doping programme have led to results being revised across the board.

Reacting to Friday’s news, Jackson wrote on Twitter: “Zubkov Gone. Double Gold Medalist from Sochi sanctioned for ADRV (anti-doping rule violation). 1 down, 1 to go.”

Having waited nearly four years for their prize, however, the British quartet will have to wait a few more months as Russia are expected to appeal against all of their sanctions at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The IOC stated that Zubkov was one of four competitors “found to have committed anti-doping rule violations” and therefore “disqualified from the events in which they participated”.

In the meantime, a disciplinary commission led by IOC member Denis Oswald will continue to work through the names mentioned in Professor Richard McLaren’s 2016 report for the World Anti-Doping Agency and Friday’s four takes the total number of Russians retrospectively disqualified from Sochi to 14.

As well as Zubkov, fellow bobsledder Olga Stulneva and speed skaters Olga Fatkulina and Aleksandr Rumyantsev have been disqualified and given lifetime bans from the Games. Fatkulina also loses her silver medal from the women’s 500 metres.

Russia have now lost nine medals from Sochi, including four golds, which knocks them off the top of the medal table, and they are almost certainly set to lose more.

And the cumulative effect of these decisions could have even graver implications for Russia, as the world’s largest country is still waiting to find out if it will face a collective punishment for its flagrant cheating.

A second commission looking at the state’s role in the scandal is finalising its report for the IOC’s executive board and a decision on whether the Russian team will be banned from February’s Winter Games in Pyeongchang will be announced on December 5.

Britain won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals in Sochi. Lizzy Yarnold provided the gold with her skeleton performance.

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