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Cape Town - South Africa's 800m star Caster Semenya could be in line to be crowned 2011 world champion and 2012 Olympic gold medal winner if disgraced Russian Mariya Savinova is stripped of her victories.
READ: Australia backs Russian Olympic ban
On Monday a damning report on alleged systematic drug use in Russian athletics was released by a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) independent commission.
According to the report, Wada laboratory experts specifically pointed to FIVE Russian athletes who the recommended should be banned for life.
The list included 800m specialist Savinova, whose doping test taken during the 2011 World Championships in Daegu was termed “very suspicious”.
Savinova denied Semenya victory in both Daegu and London, where the SA runner was forced to settle for silver.
If Wada follows through with the recommendations, Savinova would be stripped of her world and Olympic titles, and Semenya would consequently be bumped up to the top spot on the podium.
At the 2011 IAAF World Championships, South African claimed two silvers and two bronze medals.
Apart from Semenya, the men's 4x400m relay team took silver, while LJ van Zyl (men's 400m hurdles) and javelin thrower Sunette Viljoen claimed the bronze medals.
In London in 2012 Team SA returned home with three golds (Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos in the pool, and the men's lightweight coxless four in rowing).
Semenya and Le Clos won silver medals while Bridgette Hartley rounded off the medals with a bronze in the women's K-1 500m canoeing.
