( CNN ) -- Olympic 1500 meter champion Rashid Ramzi has been stripped of his gold medal after testing positive for doping at the 2008 Beijing Games , the International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) has announced . The Bahraini runner , his country 's first Olympic champion , also faces a two-year ban from track and field . Moroccan-born Ramzi tested positive for CERA , an advanced version of the endurance-boosting hormone , EPO . The 29-year-old 's disqualification means that Kenya 's Asbel Kipruto Kiprop will be awarded gold , New Zealand 's Nicolas Willis has been upgraded to silver and fourth-placed Frenchman Mehdi Baala will get bronze . Ramzi was one of five athletes who were caught out by a new test for CERA and all have been punished . The other medallist to test positive was Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin , who won silver in the individual road race . Also being sanctioned are German cyclist Stefan Schumacher , Greek 20km walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka and Croatian runner Vanja Perisic . Under IOC rules all five will be barred from the 2012 London Olympics . The IOC statement read : `` The samples were collected and tested at Games-time and were subject to further analysis earlier this year when a fully validated test to detect CERA became available . `` Originally , six athletes showed adverse analytical findings in their A samples . However , one athlete was not sanctioned due to the presence of CERA not being detected in her B sample . '' Ramzi is the highest profile star to fall foul of the new test and agency reports said he would appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration in Sport . In 2005 he did the 800 and 1500m double at the 2005 world athletics championships , becoming the first man to do so at a global event since New Zealand legend Peter Snell in 1964 . Ramzi originally competed for Morocco , but switched to cash-rich Bahrain in 2002 after joining their armed forces .
Beijing 's Ramzi stripped of the 2012 London Olympics m gold from Beijing . Ramzi tested positive for CERA an advanced version of blood-booster EPO . six other athletes who tested positive for CERA also sanctioned . Italian -born Ramzi also faces two-year ban from track and field .