World Athletics, track and field’s governing body, announced on Friday that three medals will be relocated following an investigation into age manipulation of athletes up to 20 years ago.
Jamaica’s Richard Phillips will be among the athletes to benefit.
Phillips, now 39, will be promoted from fourth to bronze in the boys’ 110m hurdles from the 2002 World Junior Championships, which was held in Kingston, Jamaica after Chinese athlete Shi Dongpeng was stripped of his silver medal.
Phillips had clocked 13.90 seconds for his fourth-place finish.
Shamar Sands of The Bahamas, who won bronze in 13.58 will have his medal upgraded to silver. Antwon Hicks of the USA won the event in 13.42 to become the first American to win the gold medal.
Shi went on to compete at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics but did not reach either final in his event.
Saudi Arabian long jumper Ahmed Al-Sharfa was stripped of a bronze medal from the 2003 World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, Canada.
The country’s men’s medley relay team was also disqualified from the 2005 World Youth Championships.
Andrejs Maskancevs of Latvia will be promoted from fourth to bronze in the boy’s long jump from the 2003 World Youth Championships.
Naohiro Shinada won the gold medal then with an effort of 7.61m and France’s Yves Renaud, the silver with 7.44m.
South Africa will be promoted from fourth to bronze in the boys’ medley relays after Saudi Arabia was stripped of the bronze medal.
USA won the gold and Trinidad and Tobago, the silver.
World Athletics also acted Friday against suspected systematic cheating in qualifying events for the Tokyo Olympics.
World Athletics said seven of its national members agreed to be on a “manipulation watch list” and results from lower-level meets in those countries will not now be accepted. The countries on the list are Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkey, Uzbekistan.
The move follows an investigation of “17 reports of suspicious competition results” at events to get qualifying standards for last year’s Olympics, World Athletics said.
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“The integrity of our sport is our highest priority at World Athletics,” federation president Sebastian Coe said in a statement. “Without it, we don’t have a sport.”
World Athletics said the federations identified as risks were cooperating and individual officials were not under suspicion.
Countries sending larger teams to the Olympics can also send more officials and be in line for a bigger share of money from the IOC’s broadcasting and sponsorship income.
The stripped medals were among 11 cases at championships held between 2001 and 2013 that were investigated by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU). Nine were overage athletes with falsified entries, including five from Saudi Arabia, and two underage athletes.
“While this step has corrected some historic wrongs, age manipulation continues to be a concern in athletics, and the AIU is actively investigating more recent allegations of this nature,” AIU chairman David Howman said.
Age manipulation in international sports has been a long-standing problem.
FIFA acknowledged in 2010 that cheating with overage players has been widespread in youth teams from Africa. Years after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, China was stripped of a bronze medal in women’s team all-around because of an underage athlete.
