Kelly Sotherton, the British heptathlete, has said that she hopes Lyudmila Blonska, the Olympic silver medal-winner, will be “finished” if test results tomorrow confirm a positive drugs test.

Sotherton has been an outspoken critic of the Ukrainian, who was slapped with a two-year ban for taking stanozolol, Ben Johnson’s steroid of choice, in 2003. The executive board of the International Olympic Committee will decide on her case; all medallists are automatically subjected to a drugs test following their event and the "A" sample found evidence of doping.

If Blonska is stripped of her medal as expected, the silver would go to Hyleas Fountain, of the United States, with Tatyana Chernova of Russia receiving the bronze. Sotherton would move up to fourth place. Nataliya Dobrynska, of the Ukraine, won the event on Saturday.

“I’m not totally surprised by the news,” Sotherton said. “I’ve been saying all along that she got caught doping when she was scoring 6,300 points, so how can she not be doping and scoring 6,800? I have not seen any of her [heptathlon] results since early June and then she comes out here and is producing good performances, which was suspicious. If the "B" sample comes back positive then that’s a life ban, which will bring an end to the saga. Hopefully, she’ll be finished.”

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That outcome would provide Sotherton with the comfort of knowing she was right to label the Ukrainian a cheat last year.

Sotherton finished third behind Blonska at the world championships and questioned the validity of her rival’s performance at an event comfortably won by Carolia Kluft of Sweden.

Saying that fellow athletes were not interested in supporting dirty competitors, she hit out at Blonska for tarnishing her sport.

“I don’t know if I feel cheated, we will find out in a few months,” Sotherton said at the time. Now she knows.

Athletes have long suspected that Blonska has continued to use drugs after returning from a ban imposed in 2003 when she tested positive for stanozolol, the anabolic steroid.

Blonska’s case is the fifth positive test of a Games that is delivering a relatively low number of doping offences. Maria Isabel Moreno, the Spanish cyclist, was the first to fail a test for EPO. Kim Jong Su, the North Korean shooting medallist was discovered to have taken betablockers while Do Thi Ngan Thuong, a Vietnamese gymnast, tested positive for a diuretic commonly used as a masking agent.

Denise Lewis, Britain's Olympic champion in the event in Sydney, said that the Beijing heptathlon had been “spoilt” by Blonska's positive drugs test. “She’s been caught once before. I’m all for giving people one more chance but it’s obvious that if you’re going to cheat you probably will always be a cheat, and I’m glad she’ll be gone from the sport for good," Lewis said.

“It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth considering the girls give everything in the heptathlon. She shouldn’t have been taking part in the heptathlon and good riddance. “She won silver in Osaka last year, so hopefully her name will be got out of the [record] books. You would think she’d learn her lesson but obviously the temptation, whether it’s the money, it attracts these people to cheating.”

To read Martindale's, 'Drugs Restricted in Sports Pocket Companion,' click here.