GB Men's British Bobsleigh quartet finally awarded 2014 Olympic bronze

The pilot of Great Britain's four-man bobsleigh team at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics has welcomed the news they have finally been awarded bronze medals but said cheats had cost the quartet their moment on the podium.

John Jackson and his team-mates originally finished in fifth place, 0.11 seconds off a bronze medal, but the Russian quartets that finished first and fourth have both since been disqualified for doping offences.

The Russian athletes involved, most notably double Sochi gold medallist Alexandr Zubkov, have fought those disqualifications with appeals and delaying tactics but now, at last, the International Olympic Committee has formally ratified the amended results in the two-man and four-man events.

This means Jackson, Stuart Benson, Joel Fearon and Bruce Tasker are now Olympic bronze medallists and Team GB's medal haul from Sochi increases to five, making it Great Britain's joint most successful Winter Games with Pyeongchang 2018.

In a British Olympic Association statement, Jackson said: "Recognition from the IOC of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic four-man bobsleigh result is a big step forward to us receiving our Olympic bronze medal.

"Disappointingly, it is a medal we should have received on an Olympic podium in 2014. Cheats have cost us that moment, along with other nations too."