Chambers costs nation silver medal
 |  Britain's Chambers clutches his medal in happier times |
PARIS, France -- Britain have been stripped of their men's 4x100m world championship silver medal after the ratification of Dwain Chambers failed drugs test, the IAAF said.
Brazil, who came third in Paris last year, now take silver, and the Netherlands, who initially finished fourth, now have the bronze. The USA won the gold medal.
The deadline for Chambers to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne has passed, meaning his ban until November 6 2005 is confirmed.
As a consequence, all of his performances, from the date of the positive sample on August 1 2003, have been annulled, including Britain's sprint relay silver.
"As Dwain Chambers has chosen not to appeal, his case is now concluded," said a spokeswoman for UK Athletics.
"UK Athletics and the athletes in the 4x100m squad were always aware that in this situation the performance of the whole squad at the world championships would be annulled and we accept that decision."
Chambers tested positive for the recently discovered designer steroid THG and was banned for two years in February.
The other British athletes in the relay in Paris were Christian Malcolm, Darren Campbell and Marlon Devonish.
Chambers, who jointly holds the European record of 9.87 seconds, also had his fourth place finish in the individual final of the 100m annulled.
Russian faces ban
A second doping test on world champion sprinter Anastasiya Kapachinskaya was positive, Russia's anti-doping chief said on Thursday.
The initial test, taken after Kapachinskaya won the 200m gold medal at last month's world indoor championships in Budapest, found traces of the anabolic steroid stanozolol.
"We just returned from Vienna where we they analysed the B sample," Nikolai Durmanov, who heads the Russian Olympic Committee's anti-doping division and was involved in the analyses, told Reuters.
"It showed that she had traces of the substance in her body above the allowable level."
Durmanov declined to discuss the consequences of the results until confirmation had been received from the governing International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
If the test results are confirmed, Kapachinskaya, who finished second behind American Kelli White in the 200m at last year's outdoor world championships in Paris, is likely to face a two-year ban and would be stripped of her world title.
White tested positive for modafinil after winning the 100m title in Paris last August.
Although modafinil was not on the IAAF banned list then, the American is likely to be stripped of her Paris gold medal, which would go to Kapachinskaya instead.
