Maria Abakumova and Tatiana Lebedeva say they grudgingly accepted guilt and will not further appeal the bans that followed retesting of doping samples taken in 2008, Russian media reported on Wednesday. The Court of Arbitration for Sport in July dismissed appeals by the pair and cyclist Ekaterina Gnidenko against their Olympic disqualifications for doping.
"I went to court against the IOC and WADA to the bitter end," Lebedeva told R-sport agency. "But I've understood that in the existing situation there's no point carrying on. It's just a waste of time and money." Lebedeva, 42, lost the silvers she won in triple jump and long jump in Beijing. She retired in 2013 after dominating long jump and triple jump for much of the previous decade. She keeps the long jump gold from the 2004 Athens Olympics and triple jump silvers in Greece and Sydney four years previously.
The 32-year-old Abakumova was stripped of the silver medal she won in javelin in Beijing Russia's athletics federation president Dmitry Shlyakhtin said that more of the country's suspended athletes are still waiting for a CAS verdict on their own cases.
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