Medal handover too little, too late, says McConnell
Lee McConnell is to set to pick up two medals on the opening night of the IAAF world championships in London – three years after the Scottish legend retired from the sport.
The sport’s governing body has confirmed it will dish out a number of upgraded prizes from past editions of the showpiece in the wake of the spate of Russian athletes who have been stripped of their titles in recent years due to failed drugs tests.
And McConnell will be on the invite list for a trip to the podium with the 38-year-old now officially becoming a four-time world bronze medallist with the British 4x400 squad from Berlin 2009 and Daegu 2011 promoted from fourth place following the ban handed out to Anastasiya Kapachinskaya for steroid use.
“I don’t know how I feel about it,” McConnell said. “I won’t make up for things. It’s not just the medal I missed out on. It affects your whole career. I left Berlin without a medal. That hurt. There’s the memories you don’t have, the financial implications, the confidence you take from doing well. So I’m not sure what it means now.”
Fellow Scot Eilidh Doyle will also get a fresh medal after her 4x400 squad from Moscow in 2013 were upgraded to silver, a revision that will see Christine Ohuruogu – McConnell’s habitual team-mate become an eight-time world championships medallist.
Among a total of 16 doping-related do-overs, Jessica Ennis-Hill will retrospectively be crowned world heptathlon champion for 2011 after Tatyana Chernova was stripped of her gold medal last year while Jo Pavey will acquire a 10,000 bronze from Osaka in 2007.
