Russian sprinter fails London doping test

Yulia Guschchina, who won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics as part of Russia's 4x400m relay team, is the latest athlete to have failed a doping test.

Russian sprinter Yulia Gushchina, who has previously been stripped of three relay medals won in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics after teammates were banned for doping, has also been disqualified from the London Games after testing positive.

Re-analysis of Gushchina's samples from London resulted in a positive test for banned substances dehydrochlormethyltestosterone and stanozolol, the International Olympic Committee said in a statement, the latest sanction as it re-tests samples from Russian athletes.

Gushchina, who failed to make the final in the individual 400m in London, helped Russia to a silver medal in the 4x400m relay but the quartet were stripped of the honour after Antonina Krivoshapka was banned retrospectively earlier this year.

In Beijing four years earlier she won gold in the 4x100m and silver in the 4x400m but had those results annulled after positive tests for teammates. The IOC also said on Thursday that Russian long jumper Anna Nazarova had failed a retrospective test from 2012, where she finished fifth.

Thursday's announcements were the latest in a stream of recent doping positives from the summer and winter Olympics, the vast majority of them Russians.

Russia's athletics federation is currently banned from the sport as is its Paralympic Committee and anti-doping organisation in the wake of widespread doping offences and cover-ups.

The IOC has said it will decide during its executive board meeting next month on the participation of Russian competitors at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea in February.