Africa will have an opportunity to win

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Russia was stripped of another track-and-field medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Friday after three athletes were retroactively caught in drug tests, the latest blow to a country reeling from scandals over widespread doping.Russia lost its silver medal in the womens 4x400 relay after Anastasia Kapachinskaya tested positive for the steroids stanozol and turinabol in a reanalysis of her doping samples, the International Olympic Committee said.Its the second 2008 relay medal stripped this week from Russia because of doping. On Tuesday, the IOC took away Russias gold in the 4x100 after Yulia Chermoshanskaya tested positive for the same two steroids.Under international rules, an entire relay team loses its medals if one of the runners tests positive.With Kapachinskayas positive, Jamaica is in line to move up from third to silver and Belarus from fourth to bronze in the 4x400 relay.Kapachinskaya was also disqualified from her fifth-place finish in the individual 400 meters.In the two other cases announced Friday, Alexander Pogorelov tested positive for turinabol and was stripped of his fourth-place finish in the decathlon, and Ivan Yushkov had his 10th place result in the shot put annulled after he tested positive for stanozolol, turinabol and oxandrolone.The three drugs are all traditional steroids that go back decades. Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for stanozolol at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, where he was stripped of the gold medal in the 100 meters.The IOC stores doping samples for 10 years so they can retested when improved methods become available. Using enhanced techniques, the IOC has retested more than 1,000 doping samples from the Beijing Games and 2012 London Olympics to catch cheats who evaded detection at the time. A total of 98 athletes were caught.For the Beijing and London retests, the IOC used a method that can detect use of steroids going back weeks and months, rather than days.Fridays decision was another black eye for Russia, whose track-and-field team was banned from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics over allegations of state-sponsored doping. Investigations are continuing into wider systematic doping in Russia involving dozens of other summer and winter Olympic sports. Cheap Air Max 90 . 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Brian Downing was with the Chicago White Sox at a time when I listened to every game I possibly could on the radio. That particular season the late great Harry Caray was calling the White Sox games. Faf du Plessis, South Africas stand-in captain, has added to the growing chorus calling for Test cricket to become the focal point among administrators and players. Although du Plessis is among the players who feature in T20 leagues across the world, he maintains Test cricket is his top priority.Test cricket is the best thing to play, he said. That is the challenge you want. You want to sit after a days play as a bowler…..your toenails are bleeding and you are extremely tired and you want to, for the guys that drink beer, have a sip at the end and say we gave it everything. You cant copy the feeling of winning a Test match in any other format, especially in T20s.Du Plessis was among the first to voice his disappointment after the Durban Test was abandoned because of an unsafe outfield. Du Plessis said he respected the officials call but rued the fact that the Centurion Test becomes a winner-takes-all affair.Two-test series is too short. With the current schedule, a five-Test series will be hard to slot-in going forward. For me a three or four-match series is ideal. When you play two Tests, you just get going, theres always a great match and then the series is finished. Two is just too short especially now that weve had one rained off.Kane Williamson, the New Zealand captain, also called for more matches to constitute a series. I dont know if you have too many lotteries in Test cricket, he said. Over five days, the team that plays more consistent cricket over a period of time wins the match but it is a shame that we arent able to play two full Tests, perhaps even more.South Africa, currently placed sixth in the Test rankings, may also be wary off being tripped up by a familiar foe.dddddddddddd. Definitely, there is more pressure, especially because we are a team that is very disappointed with where we are lying on the rankings at the moment du Plessis said. Weve got much higher standards. We want to win as many Tests as possible to try and jump up that ladder again.South Africa will have an opportunity to win Tests as theyre set to play 11 Tests this season, even though it may not be as many as some of the other sides, particularly at home.We dont play a lot of Tests at home. If you look at India, this season they have got 15 Tests coming up in their country you want to try and make use of your own conditions and play as many Tests as possible, Du Plessis aid. We play a little bit and then theres a big break. With the space the team is in now, we would like to play as much Test cricket as possible and try and build something. We have a mission as a team and we are trying to get there.Du Plessis also admitted to being concerned that the administrators were not listening to the players call for more Test cricket, but hopes the moves to resurrect the idea of a Test challenge will be one step in that direction.Yes, I am (concerned that the message is not getting through). When we fill those anonymous forms, the general thing that comes out is to play Test cricket. Its still the No.1 thing for international players, he said. To create a structure for the Test championship, thats a great step in the right direction but you need to play as many Tests as possible. ' ' '