Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill wants Russian rival Tatyana Chernova to be stripped of her 2011 World Championships gold medal after Russia’s anti-doping agency said Chernova tested positive for an anabolic steroid from the 2009 World Championships.
The Brit Ennis-Hill, who took silver behind Chernova at the 2011 World Championships one year before winning Olympic gold in London, said she’s spoken to Great Britain’s track and field federation and the IAAF, the sport’s international governing body.
“I’m putting my faith in them to look into it a bit more,” Ennis-Hill said, according to British reports. “I definitely want that medal.”
On Jan. 30, Russia’s anti-doping agency announced Chernova’s positive test from 2009 via a 2013 retest. She was given a backdated two-year ban from July 22, 2013, and had results stripped from Aug. 15, 2009, to Aug. 14, 2011.
Chernova beat Ennis-Hill for the World Championship on Aug. 30, 2011.
“Frustration isn’t a strong enough word,” Ennis-Hill said, according the Telegraph. “You train hard for all those years and then people do things like that. It doesn’t seem like she has served a ban. I’m not happy about how the ban has been handled. I can’t really understand it myself.”
Another top heptathlete, Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton, said in February that in retrospect, Chernova’s strength as a junior athlete “seemed kind of unbelievable.”
“Although heptathletes won’t openly say anything, there’s a feeling among everyone that we know what [Chernova is] doing, know it’s not right and we don’t agree with it,” Ennis-Hill said, according to the Guardian.
Ennis-Hill is scheduled to compete in a heptathlon for the first time since the London Olympics from May 30-31 in Gotzis, Austria.
Jessica Ennis-Hill still interested in hurdles, but focused on heptathlon
