Chemos happy with move to award her Games medals

Kenya’s 2013 World 3,000m steeplechase champion Milcah Chemos has welcomed the decision by the Court of Arbitration of Sport (Cas) to award her bronze medal from the 2012 Olympics and silver from the 2011 World Championships.

Chemos, the 2010 Commonwealth champion, was handed the medals after Cas stripped Russian Yuliya Zaripova of her gold medals at both events after being found guilty of doping.

“I’m happy the cheats have been banned but affected athletes like us should be compensated,” Chemos said on Friday.

During the 2012 London Olympics, Chemos finished fourth in 9 minutes, 09.88 seconds behind Zaripova, who won gold in world lead and personal best 9:06.72, Habiba Ghribi from Tunisia (9:08.37) and Ethiopian Sofia Assefa (9:09.84). Ghribi will be handed gold and Assefa silver.

Chemos, who missed her title defence last year in Beijing, will also be given silver medal for the 2011 World Championships with Mercy Njoroge upgrading to bronze while Ghribi takes gold.

On Thursday, Cas upheld IAAF’s appeal over selective doping punishment imposed on Zaripova by Russian Anti-doping Agency.

Zaripova's ban covers the period from July 20th 2011 to July 25th 2013.

Russians who have also been stripped of their medals are Sergey Kirdyapkin, who won gold in 50km walk race at 2012 London Olympics and Sergey Bakulin who won same event at 2011 World Championships.

This will be the second time a Kenyan is getting a medal from the Olympics over doping after Asbel Kiprop was given the 2008 Olympics men 1,500m gold after originally taking silver behind Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzi who was disqualified for doping.

“I feel delighted but at the same sad knowing that a cheat can deny credible athletes their moment of glory,” said Chemos. “I just don’t know why both IAAF and Wada took long to nab these cheats.”

However, Chemos, the 2009 Berlin Worlds bronze medallist, said she is yet to get an official communication from Athletics Kenya or the National Olympic Committee of Kenya regarding the upgrades.

Chemos, who competed for Kenya last at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where she won bronze, has slowly been regaining form after a back surgery towards the end of 2014. “I have started training and hope to make it for Rio Olympics,” said Chemos.

The IAAF went to CAS with its concerns that the RUSADA had failed to correctly apply World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) rules when disqualifying results of six Russian athletes who failed drugs tests.

CAS announced in a statement Thursday: “The IAAF challenged what it felt was a ‘selective’ disqualification of results, submitting that all results achieved by the athletes from the date of their first abnormal sample to the date they accepted a provisional suspension should be disqualified.”