Hammer throwers for Belarussia that had their Olympic medals forfeited due to positive results for banned substances seek their day before the appeals body governing sport. Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan have both lodged their appeals with the court of Arbitration for Sport. They had questioned the findings that led the Executive Board’s ruling imposing sanction on each of them individually. They also seek to have the basis of the decision reviewed despite the testimony they had provided in the hearing conducted. They want their medals returned and their status reinstated as athletes with full certifications to participate in all athletics events.

Both athletes have sought to overturn the December 11, 2008 ruling by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee finding them both positive for banned substances. This had disqualified them from the Beijing Olympic games. The two were found to be positive for performance enhancing substance use in the drug testing conducted during the quadrennial event.

The pair had won the silver and bronze medals in Beijing after testing for high concentrations of testosterone in their urine samples. After a hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland, both denied the charges at the IOC disciplinary committee hearing. They were both meted out sanctions for their offense. And the sanctions would necessarily affect their futures as athletes.

Devyatovsky was prohibited from participation in any Olympic level events and the Olympics themselves. This was his second doping offense after serving a two-year sanction in 200 to 2002 also from drug findings. Under current International Association of Athletic Federations rules, a lifetime ban is imposable for the two drug findings. The thirty one year old athlete has been a perennial star athlete in the event.

As for Tsikhan, he is the former three time world champion and silver medallist in the Athens Olympiad in 2004. His sanction includes a two year ban from IAAF recognized competitions and disallowance from participating in the London Olympic games in 2012. This is in consonance with the new IOC ruling that those athletes suspended for at least six months would be banned in the next Olympic games. This would seal the end of a lustrous career of the thirty year old should the sanctions be upheld after the appeal.

As a result of the decision meting out the sanctions to the two Belarussians, the silver medal in the Beijing Olympics was given to Krisztian Pars of Hungary and Koji Murofoshi of Japan. The gold medallist in the Hammer Throw for the Beijing Olympics remained to be Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia.

As of writing, the hearing dates for the appeal are still pending. The full appeals process would be projected to run for about four months.

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