FORMER Greenhill School pupil Bruce Tasker is a step closer to an historic Winter Olympic medal despite a decision from The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn the life bans of 28 of the 43 Russian athletes found guilty of doping at the Sochi games.

The CAS have annulled the IOC suspensions for doping at the 2014 event - partially upholding 11 other appeals.

That decision has already caused widespread outrage, with many lamenting the undermining of the IOC, with a ruling that seemingly takes a soft stance on drug cheats.

However for Britain's four-man bobsleigh team of Tasker, John Jackson, Stuart Benson and Joel Fearon, the news is good.

The quartet finished fifth in Sochi before the IOC disqualified two Russian sleds who finished first and fourth following a re-examination of the doping tests conducted at the time - and athletes from both thosesleds were included in the 11 whose doping violations were confirmed by CAS.

The IOC is yet to officially reallocate the medals from that event, but if confirmed it would raise Britain's medal count to five and make Sochi 2014 their most successful Winter Olympics.

It would also make 30-year-old Tasker, who sadly will miss the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea after suffering a minor stroke last month, the first ever Welsh athlete to win a Winter Olympic medal.

In late 2017, he spoke to Telegraph Sport after learning of the Russian disqualifications, saying "It feels amazing, I never let myself believe this was going to happen."