Rio Olympics: IOC bans four after retests of Beijing-London dope

Rio de Janeiro: The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday stripped Ukrainian javelin thrower Oleksandr Pyatnytsya of his silver medal from the 2012 Olympics as it announced the first sanctions after retests on doping samples from the London and Beijing Games.

The sanctions against four athletes were the first announced after 98 competitors were found to have failed doping tests at London and Beijing in 2008 using new analysis techniques.

Women weightlifters from Turkey and Armenia and Belarus hammer thrower were disqualified from the Rio Games following the new tests.

The IOC ordered new tests on hundreds of samples after Russian sport was found to be involved in mass doping.