MONACO, Aug 2: Former world shot put champion Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus has been stripped of four world championship medals by the IAAF.

The sport’s world governing body removed Mikhnevich’s silver medals from the 2006 and 2010 world indoor championships as well as his bronze medals from the 2007 and 2011 outdoor worlds.

The 37-year-old Mikhnevich, who was world champion in 2003, was banned for life by the Belarus Athletics Federation in June after testing positive in retests of his doping sample from the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, when he finished sixth. That ban has been upheld by the IAAF.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will now decide whether to strip Mikhnevich of the bronze medal he won at the 2008 Olympics.—AP