Beijing bronze is very emotional, says Olympic 400m runner Andrew Steele

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Former British international 400m runner Andrew Steele says he is “genuinely emotional” after discovering he would become an Olympic bronze medallist while standing in a clothing store in New York.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced that the Russian men’s 4x400m relay quartet would be disqualified and stripped of its bronze medal from the Beijing Games in 2008 after Denis Alexeev tested positive for a banned substance, as well as javelin silver medallist Maria Abakumova.

News broke back in May from Russian media that 400m runner Alexeev was among a group of the country’s athletes to have failed retrospective tests, but until now there had been no official confirmation.

Recently-retired British sprinter Steele was part of the British quartet who finished close behind Russia in fourth, and told he told AW: “It’s certainly emotional. Obviously it’s been unofficial for quite a while and we suspected it for even longer but it’s gone so quiet of late I started to suspect it may never come to fruition. I’m honestly …

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