The Russian Athletics Federation on Thursday urged athletes who were disqualified from the Beijing and London Olympics for doping to "return their medals" to the IOC, according to REUTERS. In a statement, the federation said, "The adherence to international rules of fair play and the return of Olympic emblems is one of the conditions for the rehabilitation of Russian athletics on the international stage." The federation, which has publicly called on athletes to return their medals at least twice in the past, said that "their failure to do so could compromise its efforts to regain membership" in the IAAF. The Russian federation "added that four athletes had returned their awards so far" (REUTERS, 7/6). In London, Ron Lewis reported Great Britain's 4x400m relay team from the 2008 Olympics will "finally receive" its Bronze Medals on Sunday. The team of Andrew Steele, Robert Tobin, Michael Bingham and Martyn Rooney "will be presented with the medals in a ceremony at the Muller Anniversary Games at the London Stadium." The quartet finished fourth in the final, behind the U.S., Bahamas and Russia, but was "moved from fourth to third" after Russia was disqualified last year when "retrospective testing of urine samples found that anchor runner Denis Alekseyev had used a banned substance" (LONDON TIMES, 7/6).
