Nigerian athletics superstar, Blessing Okagbare has been upgraded to second position in the women’s long jump event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The upgrade comes after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) discovered that Russia’s Tatyana Lebedeva tested positive to banned substances the event.
Okagbare won a bronze medal in the event for Nigeria, but with this discovery, she will be upgraded to silver. Consequently, Team Nigeria’s medals’ haul at the 2008 Olympic Games is now three silver medals (U-23 Eagles, women’s 4 x100 metres relay team and the women’s long jump and Chika Chukwumerije’s bronze medal in taekwondo.
IOC’s website on Wednesday indicated that an intelligence-gathering process that started in August 2015 to curb drug cheats indicted Lebedeva alongside Jamaica’s Nesta Carter who won gold medal in the men’s 4×100 metres relay alongside Usain Bolt and Ashafa Powel.
The Russian who also won silver in the women’s triple jump event in Beijing Olympics and the Jamaican were both stripped of their respective medals.
According to the IOC, Lebedeva was found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in 2008.
The IOC also requested the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to modify the results of the above-mentioned events accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.
Consequently, Maurren Maggi of Brazil retains her gold medal, Nigeria’s Okagbare will be elevated to the silver medal while Jamaica’s Chelsea Hammond joins the list of Olympic Games medalists by taking the bronze medal, having finished fourth when the event was done in 2008.
