POLISH WEIGHTLIFTER TOMASZ Zielinski, sent home from Rio last month after failing a drugs test, is set to be awarded a bronze medal from London 2012 despite originally finishing ninth at that Games.
Zielinski, competing in the men’s 94kg event, will pick up the bronze after a sixth competitor from the London final was banned.
Kazakhstani weightlifter Ilya Ilyin was awarded the gold medal in 2012, breaking two world records in the process, but in June it was announced that he was one of four weightlifting champions from Kazakhstan who tested positive after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) began to retest samples from both Beijing and London.
Russia’s Aleksandr Ivanov and Anatolie Ciricu of Moldova — who both set personal bests in finishing second and third in 2012 — have since tested positive, as have Andery Demanov (Russia), who was originally fourth, Azerbaijan’s Intigam Zairov (originally sixth) and Kazakhstan’s Almas Uteshov, who was seventh.
It all means that Iran’s Saeid Mohammadpour, who originally finished fifth, is the new London 2012 champion while the eighth-placed Kim Min-Jae of South Korea has been promoted to silver.