Brenda Martinez gets Worlds medal upgrade and bonus, six years later
Martinez is finally getting a medal upgrade and a trip to Doha that she earned in 2013
On Sunday, American runner Brenda Martinez was notified by USATF that she will be going to Doha in two weeks’ time to officially receive her medal upgrade from the 2013 World Championships. The bronze medal she earned in the 800m at that championship has now been upgraded to silver following Russian athlete Mariya Savinova’s ban and subsequent stripping of both her World Championship medals (2011 and 2013) and her Olympic gold medal from 2012.
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Martinez wrote in her post that she has also already received her World Championship bonus from New Balance, which has been her sponsor for nearly a decade. Martinez has sat out the 2019 season due to injury, but is looking to be back in 2020.
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American Alysia Montaño, who was initially fourth in the 2013 World Championship final, led the entire race before getting passed in the final straight. The runner was in the media earlier this summer when she joined Kara Goucher and Allyson Felix in coming forward with their maternity leave (or lack thereof) stories.
Montaño finished fourth in the 800m final at the 2012 Olympics in London, third at the world championships in both 2011 and now 2013, and first at the USATF national championships six times between 2007 and 2015–one of them at only six months post-partum. She has been upgraded as well.
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Caster Semenya will also receive her long awaited gold medal from the 2011 World Championships which Savinova also won and has since been striped of. Semenya is unable to defend her World Championship title this fall in the 800m as a Swiss Court overturned their own ruling in July, preventing Semenya from competing in her primary event. According to the IAAF ruling, Semenya is not allowed to compete at any event from the 400m through the mile, considering she has adamantly refused to lower her testosterone to 5 nmol/L, the maximum allowed under the IAAF’s testosterone rule. Reportedly, Athletics South Africa will receive the medal on Semenya’s behalf at the upcoming championship.
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