IAAF TO CHALLENGE RUSSIAN FEDERATION OVER TIMING OF DOPING SUSPENSIONS, WILL SEEK LONGER BANS
By Bob Ramsak
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
As
expected, track & field's international governing body has
challenged the All Russia Athletics Federation in the Court of
Arbitration or Sport over the timing of doping suspensions handed down
to seven athletes who were found guilty of manipulating doping tests.
The
group of suspended athletes, which includes two-time world 1500m
champion Tatyana Tomashova and Yelena Soboleva, who lost her 2008 world
indoor title and world record in the 1500 due to her doping bust, were
found guilty of manipulating and substituting urine tests following a
year-long investigation by the global governing body.
In
October, the Russian federation backdated the start of the bans to
April and May 2007, corresponding with the athletes' initial positive
tests, contrary to IAAF rules which state that athletes are deemed
ineligible from the date they were first provisionally suspended.
"It
is unacceptable to the IAAF that these athletes who have committed
serious and deliberate breaches of our anti-doping Rules would receive
an effective ban of approximately 9-10 months and see them eligible to
compete again in the summer of 2009," said IAAF President Lamine Diack
in a statement issued by the body today.
Diack added that the gravity of the offenses warrants a longer ban than the minimum two-year sanction.
"What
is more," Diack said, "I consider the circumstances surrounding these
cases warrants the IAAF to seek an extended ban over and above the
minimum two year period."
The other athletes include Yulia
Fomenko, who raced to world indoor silver this year behind Soboleva
after winning the title in Moscow in 2006; Svetlana Cherkasova, who had
1:58.37 and 4:06.58 performances to her credit this season; discus
thrower Daria Pishchalnikova, who took the silver medal at last year's
world championships and won gold at the 2006 European championships;
hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva, the European silver medallist two
years ago; and Olga Yegorova, the controversial 2001 world champion in
the 5000m. Since the provisional suspensions were handed down, Yegorova
has announced her retirement.
The year-long probe which netted the athletes involved DNA analysis for the first time.
