Irina Nikolaevna Belova (; ; born 27 March 1968) is a retired heptathlete from Russia. In her early career she represented USSR, with a fourth place at the 1990 European Championships and a bronze medal at the 1991 World Championships. Her career highlight came in 1992 as she won an Olympic silver medal. In February the same year she set the world record in indoor pentathlon with 4991 points. She "won" the pentathlon at the 1993 World Indoor Championships, but failed a drug test and received a four-year suspension and her performance for the competition was nullified and she was forced to return the gold medal (yet she kept the silver medal from the Olympics obtained in the previous year).Sports Reference - Irina Belova Upon returning she won two silver medals at the European and World Indoor Championships respectively. She retired after the 2001 season.
Personal bests
Heptathlon - 6845 (1992) 200 metres - 23.34 (1992) 400 metres - 52.87 (1991) 800 metres - 2:02.06 (2001) 100 metres hurdles - 13.25 (1992) High jump - 1.88 (1992) Long jump - 6.82 (1992) Shot put - 14.12 (2001) Javelin throw - 44.64 (1999)
Achievements YearTournamentVenueResultExtra1990European Championships Split, Yugoslavia 4thHeptathlon1991World Championships Tokyo, Japan 3rdHeptathlon1992Summer Olympics Barcelona, Spain 2ndHeptathlon, 6845 PB1993World Indoor Championships Toronto, CanadaDSQ 1st Pentathlon1998European Indoor Championships Valencia, Spain 2ndPentathlonHypo-Meeting Götzis, Austria 1stHeptathlonEuropean Championships Budapest, Hungary5thHeptathlon1999World Indoor Championships Maebashi, Japan 2ndPentathlonHypo-Meeting Götzis, Austria 2ndHeptathlon2001Hypo-Meeting Götzis, Austria4thHeptathlon
See also List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences
References
External links
Irina Belova at All-Athletics.com