He will have to return his medal for the 77-kilo event, said the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The IOC stores samples for eight years after an event so they can be retested should more sophisticated technology be developed or new substances be added to the banned list.

The IOC did not say what type of specimen was tested, but it is believed to be anabolic steroids.

"The IOC, in close collaboration with the World Anti- Doping Agency, decided to further analyse a number of samples from the Athens Games as a result of targeted testing based on intelligence and new methods," the IOC said after the decision to strip Perepetchenov of his medal was confirmed here by the ruling Executive Board.


The event was won by Turkey's Taner Sağır and his colleague Reyhan Arabacıoğlu is now set to be upgraded to the bronze medal. 

Perepetchenov is the fifth Athens Games medallist to be stripped of a medal following sample retests.

Ukraine's shot put champion Yuriy Bilonoh, women's shot putter Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia and discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus, who both won bronze medals, and Belarussian hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan, who won silver, were demoted in December last year.

Three-times world champion Tsikhan had also lost his bronze medal from the 2008 Beijing Games but that decision was overturned at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) because of a laboratory procedural error.

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