Dylan Armstrong to receive '08 Olympic bronze for shot put

Canadian shot putter Dylan Armstrong will receive his long-awaited Olympic bronze medal next month.

The native of Kamloops, B.C., will be awarded the bronze medal from the 2008 Beijing Games in his hometown Feb. 15, according to a release Friday from the Harry Jerome Indoor Games.

Armstrong finished fourth in the shot put competition at Beijing, less than one centimetre behind third-place finisher Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus. But Mikhnevich received a lifetime ban for doping in 2013 and was suspended after renewed tests from the '05 world championships in Helsinki.

It was Mikhnevich's second doping offence, which comes with an automatic lifetime ban and effectively wipes out all his results past that time. In August 2014, it was announced that the IOC had decided to award Armstrong the medal.

Armstrong will be formally presented with the bronze medal during a special ceremony.

Armstrong aims to compete at the 2015 world outdoor championships in Beijing and '16 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where he hopes to improve on a disappointing fifth-place finish at the 2012 London Games.