Australian race-walker Jared Tallent has had a very successful few months thanks to the Russian doping scandal tearing through international athletics. Back in March, he officially became an Olympic gold medalist in the 50-kilometer race walk after the original champion from the 2012 London Games, Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin, was stripped of his medal for doping. The decision was part of a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport by the IAAF, who claimed that Russia's anti-doping agency (RUSADA) punished guilty athletes in such a way that they could keep their medals.And yesterday, Tallent staged the gold-medal ceremony pictured above for another event, the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, after he learned that both Russian athletes who finished ahead of him—Sergey Bakulin and Denis Nizhegorodov—were implicated in the scandal as well. Tallent had originally finished third at Daegu. He moved into second place when the same appeal that gave him an Olympic gold medal also disqualified Bakulin. Now it looks like he will move into first: the Russian news agency TASS revealed yesterday that Nizhegorodov was among the 31 athletes (14 of them Russian) with positive results in a new round of doping tests from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It would appear this disqualifies Nizhegorodov from the 2011 Worlds. Tallent expects a formal change from the IOC in June, and the Australian IOC will hold an official medal ceremony for him then.[WaPo]Not quite Daegu but nevertheless a gold medal ceremony well-deserved for WC11 50kmw @JaredTallent @spikesmag pic.twitter.com/0dlYvhgO9x
— patbirgan (@patbirgan) May 24, 2016