Beijing  - Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine was on Friday stripped of her heptathlon silver medal and kicked out of the Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee said.

Blonska also faces a life ban from the ruling athletics body as she is a second-time offender.

The IOC said that Blonska, 30, tested positive for the steroid methyltestosterone after the completion of the Olympic heptathlon on August 16 where she finished second behind compatriot Natalya Dobrynska.

The IOC said that the results are to be modified. American champion Hyleas Fountain was third in the heptathlon and Tatiana Chernova of Russia fourth, with Fountain now to receive silver and Chernova bronze.

Blonska was banned 2003-2005 after being caught using the steroid stanozolol and as a result of this first offence faces a life ban.

She was provisionally suspended on Thursday in order to prohibit her from competing in Friday's long jump final.

The IOC also said that it will look into the role of Blonska's coach, Sergei Blonsky.

The IOC said it has already carried out 4,600 doping tests and that the final number would be around 5,000. The IOC had originally spoken of conducting 4,500 tests in the Olympic peroid July 27-August 24.

Blonska is the fifth athlete to fail a doping test at the Beijing Games, after the Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno, North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su, Vietnamese gymnast Do Thi Ngan Thuong and the 2004 Olympic 400m hurdles champion Fani Halkia of Greece. Kim lost his 50-metre air pistol silver and a 10-metre air pistol bronze.

Under new IOC rules athletes who test positive at the Olympics are automatically banned from the next Games. (dpa)