Dylan Armstrong gets his medal

SPORTS — Dylan Armstrong finally got his Olympics bronze medal Sunday.

Six and half years after the Beijing Olympics, Armstrong was presented with the bronze by four-time Olympic champion Hayley Wickenheiser at a ceremony at the Tournament Capital Centre in front of a crowd of several hundred people.

In Beijing, the Kamloops shot putter placed fourth but the the Belarus competitor who beat him for third tested positive for doping.

“It’s nice to have the original medal and nobody can ever take that away from me,” Armstrong told reporters. “The community has been totally behind me.”

He earlier told The Canadian Press, “The question I won’t miss is ‘When are you going to get your medal?'”

In 2008, Armstrong finished a centimetre behind bronze medallist Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus. That was changed to third last August after Mikhnevich was banned for life for doping.

“It’s obviously the one medal that’s going to be the most important to me to have accomplished in my career,” said Armstrong, the first Canadian shot putter to win an Olympic medal.

Mayor Peter Milobar and MLA and Health Minister Terry Lake were among the speakers at the ceremony, emceed by CBC sportscaster Scott Russell.