Polukhin, a member of the relay team which won a Paralympic gold medal at Vancouver 2010, failed a drugs test at an IPC Biathlon World Cup event in Finsterau in Germany on February 26.

The 33-year-old, also a four-time Paralympic silver medallist, has been stripped of the gold medal he clinched in the men’s 15 kilometres biathlon race at the competition in Finsterau.

Ukraine’s Anatolii Kovalevskyi will be upgraded to the gold medal and his team-mate Iurii Utkin will now receive the silver.

The bronze will now be awarded to Polukhin’s compatriot Stanislav Chokhlaev.

Heart-attack drug meldonium was added to the banned list by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on January 1, who claimed there was evidence that it was being used for performance enhancing purposes.

WADA admitted in April, however, that more research was required to calculate how long the product remains in the human body.

It was ruled that if below one microgram of meldonium was detected and the failed test came before March 1, a negligence or no fault verdict could be reached.

Polukhin has been a beneficiary of the ruling as the IPC Hearing Body decided that “No fault or negligence” applies due to the small amount of the substance being found in his sample.

“The IPC Anti-Doping Hearing Body found the athlete to have no fault or negligence after having considered the circumstances of this case and the WADA notice published in April 2016 on meldonium cases,” IPC’s medical and scientific director Peter Van de Vliet said.

“WADA’s notice gives guidance to hearing panels to assess the degree of fault/negligence for the presence of meldonium in an athlete’s sample when the panel is satisfied that the substance was ingested before 1 January 2016, the date it was added to the Prohibited List.

“The notice was issued in absence of clear scientific evidence on excretion times of meldonium.”