Mahiedine stripped of his gold medal

Zurich: France’s Mahiedine Mehkissi-Benabbad was stripped of his gold medal in the 3,000m steeplechase at the European athletics championships on Thursday after peeling off his running vest before he crossed the line.Entering the home he removed his French singlet, put it between his teeth and implored the crowd to acclaim him as he ran bare-chested to complete a convincing victory in 8min 25.30sec.

 

But the 29-year-old appeared to contravene rule 143.8 of the International Assoc-iation of Athletics Federations, stipulating that “bibs may not be obscured in any way.” The two-time World Championship bronze medallist initially received a yellow card warning but a protest was lodged by the Spanish team and upheld, prompting a counter protest by the French that was rejected. Yoann Kowal was upgraded from silver to gold, with Krystian Zalewski promoted to second and Angel Mullera to third.