London Olympic champion Anna Chicherova had her appeal against a doping ban that saw her stripped of Games bronze from Beijing rejected on Friday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

High jumper Chicherova was stripped of her bronze medal in October 2016 after re-analysis of the sample she gave during the Beijing Olympics in 2008 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

That tested positive for the prohibited anabolic steroid turinabol.

Chicherova had finished third behind Belgian Tia Hellebaut and Blanka Vlasic of Croatia.

Russian Elena Slesarenko originally came fourth with Vita Palamar of Ukraine fifth but those two have also been stripped of their results and banned for doping after their re-tested samples came up positive.

It meant that American Chaunte Howard, originally sixth, was promoted to third.

Chicherova, who did not serve a ban at the time, took off 2010 to have a baby and then came back to win the world title in 2011 and Olympic gold in 2012.

Since 2015, the IOC has re-tested more than 1,000 samples from the Beijing and London Games resulting in 106 positive results and 75 medals being redistributed.

The worst offending country has been Russia with 37 positive tests ahead of Belarus with 16.

Weightlifting has been the sport hardest hit with 49 positives ahead of athletics with 46.

source: AFP