Jamaica’s Kaliese Spencer officially became an Olympic medallist on Thursday, when she was formally reallocated the 2012 London Games bronze medal in the 400 metre hurdles by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) more than a decade after the competition.

It means the veteran runner will finally receive an Olympic medal at the age of 35.

IOC made the reallocation because of the disqualification of Natalya Antyukh in the fallout from the Russian doping scandal.

American runner Lashinda Demus was upgraded to the gold medal and Zuzana Hejnová of Czechia was upgraded to silver, the IOC said.

On the London track on August 8, 2012, Demus finished 0.07 seconds behind Antyukh, who was implicated last year in the second doping case of her career. Hejnova had crossed the finish line third in 53.38 while Spencer finished fourth in 53.66.

Historical evidence recovered from a Moscow testing laboratory database let track’s Athletics Integrity Unit decide last October to strip Antyukh of all her results from July 2012 through June 2013.

Demus will receive a gold medal from the IOC to add to her world title won in 2011. However, she was denied during her career the commercial benefits of calling herself an Olympic champion.

When the AIU ruling was made five months ago, Antyukh was already serving a four-year ban in a previous case that disqualified all her results from 2013 to 2015.

– AP