Viktoriya Tereshchuk has been stripped of her Beijing 2008 modern pentathlon bronze medal ©Getty Images

Viktoriya Tereshchuk of Ukraine, who won bronze in the women's individual modern pentathlon event at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, has been stripped of her medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after failing a retrospective drugs test.

Re-analysis of her sample from the 2008 Games in the Chinese capital has returned positive for the prohibited substance dehydrochloromethyltestosterone, better known as turinabol.

Tereshchuk finished third in the competition behind Germany's Lena Schöneborn and Heather Fell of Great Britain, who took gold and silver respectively.

Belarus' Anastasiya Samusevich is now set to move into bronze medal position after she finished fourth in 2008.

Reacting to the news, International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) President Klaus Schormann has said the case is "highly regrettable and very rare" in the sport.

The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine have been ordered to ensure full implementation of the decision and has been tasked with the return of the bronze medal, the diploma and the medallist pin Tereshchuk was awarded in Beijing.

Tereshchuk is a former three-time world champion having won individual gold and mixed relay gold, with Pavlo Kirpulyanskyy, at the 2011 UIPM Senior World Championships in Moscow.

She then increased her tally with a women's relay gold in Kaoshiung in Chinese Taipei two years later, competing alongside Ganna Buriak and Iryna Khokhlova.

Viktoriya Tereshchuk, right, finished third behind Germany's Lena Schöneborn, centre, and Heather Fell of Great Britain, left, in Beijing ©Getty Images
Viktoriya Tereshchuk, right, finished third behind Germany's Lena Schöneborn, centre, and Heather Fell of Great Britain, left, in Beijing ©Getty Images

For her World Championship victories, she was named Ukrainian Sportswoman of the Year in 2011 and received the Order of Princess Olga in the second class.

Tereshchuk also won individual gold at the 2008 European Modern Pentathlon Championships in Moscow and the mixed relay title alongside Pavlo Tymoshchenko in Drzonkow in Poland in 2013.

She also competed at the Athens 2004 and London 2012 Olympic Games, where she finished seventh and twenty-third respectively.

The positive test comes as the IOC continue to re-analyse frozen samples from both Beijing 2008 and London 2012 using new techniques not available at the time.

As of today, there have now been 101 sanctions imposed as a result of the re-analysis.

"The UIPM acknowledges the decision of the IOC Disciplinary Commission in respect of the athlete Viktoriya Tereshchuk," said Schormann.

"This is a highly regrettable and very rare case of a modern pentathlete being found to have committed an anti-doping violation.

"The UIPM is grateful to the IOC for having devised a system of detecting historic transgressions relating to the Olympic Games.

"UIPM is committed to promoting clean sport and protecting clean athletes, and will continue to maintain a robust anti-doping system in order to enshrine the values of respect and fair play as established by our founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin."