Belarus' Olympic medal winning duo fail dope tests

MOSCOW: Belarus' Olympic silver and bronze hammer medalists Vadim Devyatovsky and Ivan Tikhan have failed dope tests, the Russian news agency Allsport reported.
    
The agency's report quoted a source "linked to world doping agency WADA" who said the A samples that were given by the athletes for testing after the final on August 17 in Beijing showed the presence of the banned substance testosterone.
    
The 31-year-old Devyatovsky, who already served a two-year ban for a doping offence in 2000-2002, would face a lifetime ban if his B sample also returns a positive test.
    
Tikhan, 32 and a three-time world champion, has never previously failed a dope test.
    
Should they be stripped of their medals - a competition won by Slovenia's Primoz Kozmus - then Krisztian Pars of Hungary and Japan's 2004 Olympic champion Koji Murofushi would receive the silver and bronze respectively.