The Cork athlete finished fourth in the men's 50 kilometre walk in London but looks set to be upgraded to bronze after Russian gold medalist Sergey Kirdyapkin's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was upheld.

"All competitive results obtained by Ms Olga Kaniskina from 15 August 2009 to 15 October 2012 are disqualified", CAS said.

Of the five other athletes, Kaniskina stands to lose her 2012 20km walk silver medal, Bakulin his 2011 world 50km title, Borchin his 2009 and 2011 20km titles, while Zaripova is set to forfeit her 2011 world 3000m steeplechase title after already being stripped of her 2012 Olympic gold following a previous ban. He won a World championship gold in 2013 which means that he has now captured medals at Olympic, World and European events.

In Kirdyapkin's case, RUSADA had allowed him a window of four months in 2012, which meant he kept an Olympic gold medal he would otherwise have lost.

Gold will go to Australian Jared Tallent and silver to China's Si Tianfeng.

"I'm just very, very happy to know that I am rightfully and will be officially named as the Olympic champion from London", Tallent said.

Thirty-six-year-old Kirdyapkin was one of six Russians whose cases were considered by CAS, after all received varying bans for doping.

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The IAAF expressed its gratitude to CAS for the verdicts and said it will "immediately proceed to the effective disqualification of results, re-rankings and reallocation of medals in all competitions under its control".

In its appeal IAAF argued that the timing of the bans was "selective" after RUSADA had argued that its suspensions, ranging from two years to life, applied only to times when the athletes' blood values were extreme.

"We presented our experts' opinions at CAS".

The CAS viewed the appeal on Thursday and stated in its subsequent ruling: "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". "We'll take it into account when RUSADA takes decisions, but each case is individual".

Russian Federation was suspended from global track and field in the wake of a report past year exposing widespread cheating and corruption.

The decision paves the way for an elated Jared Tallent (Vic), who has commented below, to be recognised as Olympic champion.

In March 2015 the IAAF announced its disagreement with RUSADA's decision to suspend a a group of Russian athletes for doping-related violations selectively annulling results of the field and trackers at the issue.


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