Morse relieved to see justice served to Ostapchuk

By Steven Oldham, Sportsbeat

TEAM GB discus thrower Brett Morse has welcomed the decision to strip shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk of her London 2012 gold medal following the Belarusian's failed drugs test.

SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED: Brett Morse tweeted during London 2012 that he suspected Nadzeya Ostapchuk was doping

Ostapchuk won the competition with a throw of 21.36m from New Zealand's Valerie Adams and Evgeniia Kolodko of Russia a week ago.

But the 31-year-old was removed from the results on Monday by the IOC following the discovery of anabolic agent metenolone in her sample in two separate drugs tests.

Morse - who had already voiced his doubts on Ostapchuk via Twitter during the Games - believes the swift action to exclude her maintains the integrity of the competition.

He said: "Without a doubt the quick action to strip her of the medal gives both myself and the rest of Team GB confidence in the anti-doping system.

"It wasn't her performance that raised my suspicions initially.  I saw her in the dining area and she has a really deep voice and broken skin - tell tale signs she's taking something she shouldn't. 

She looks quite manly and it's ridiculous for a woman of her size to be able to bench press 200kgs. I'm happy she's been caught out." 

As a result of Ostapchuk's disqualification, New Zealander Adams win the shot put for the second consecutive Games.  Koldoko is promoted to silver thanks to a personal best of 20.48m, while China's Lijiao Gong will now take bronze.

The IOC released a statement confirming Ostapchuk's removal from the results.

It read: "The athlete was first requested to provide a urine sample for a doping control on 5 August.

"She competed the next day in the women's shot put event, where she placed first, and was asked to provide a sample straight after her competition.

"Both samples indicated the presence of metenolone, which is classified as anabolic agent under the 2012 prohibited list."

All London 2012 medallists were required to provide a drugs test, regardless of any other randomly-selected tests before, during and after competition.

Morse came under fire from some Twitter users for airing his suspicions on the social networking site, and later apologised.   He admits he regrets his methods, though now feels vindicated by Ostapchuk's disqualification.

He said: "I shouldn't have tweeted without proof.  I had suspicions but shouldn't have put them on Twitter - I made a mistake there.  Thinking about it maybe it would have been better for me to raise my doubts privately, though I'm not quite sure how all that works."

The 23-year-old Welshman - competing in his first Games - was eliminated in the qualifying round, a performance he was disappointed with, eventually placing 35th with a best throw of 58.18m, some way short of his personal best of 66.06m.

Hungarian discus throwers Zoltan Kovago and Robert Fazekas were banned from the Games before they started.

Kovago refused to take a pre-Games drugs test - a stance the IOC view the same as testing positively, whilst Fazekas - stripped of a gold medal in Athens - is now facing a lifetime ban for a second infringement of the rules.

Morse said: "Ostapchuk may be the only medallist who's been thrown out, but the Hungarians in the discus were found out before they got here.  If they'd have competed they could have been medal contenders.  Kovago came third in the Euros recently.  They could both have been up there." 

London 2012 and the Paralympics are set to be the most tested sporting event in history, with over 6,000 samples taken across the duration of the Games.