IOC upgrades Team Nigeria’s Beijing Olympics bronze to silver

Nigerian team of Franca Idoko Gloria Kemasuode Halimat Ismaila and Oludamola Osayomi

International Olympic Committee (IOC) has formally written to inform Team Nigeria through the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) that she has upgraded Nigeria’s bronze medal won in the women’s 4x100 meter relay at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing to silver.

Russia was stripped of the gold medal the country won in the women’s 4×100m relay at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, after doping scandal wreaked havoc on the nation’s athletes. The IOC disqualified Yulia Chermoshanskaya, 30, after a re-analysis of the retired runner’s samples from Beijing found traces of two banned substances in her system, stanozolol and turinabol. She was also disqualified from the 200m, in which she finished eighth.

NOC spokesman Tony Ubani said, in a letter from the IOC addressed to President of NOC, Engineer Habu Gumel and signed by Pere Miro, the IOC said: “it is our pleasure to inform you that your relay team is now placed second in this same event”. Belgium has been upgraded to the relay gold, with Nigeria moving up to silver and Brazil to bronze.

And in order to proceed to the re-allocation according to the new classification, the IOC asked the NOC to send back the bronze medals, the second place diplomas and the bronze medallists pins of Ms Franca Idoko, Ms Gloria Kemasuode, Ms Halimat Ismaila and Ms Oludamola Osayomi who were Team Nigeria’s flag bearers in the women relay team.