CAS confirms increased suspension for 7 Russian athletes

Wednesday, 22 July 2009 CAS confirms increased suspension for 7 Russian athletes

Anti-Doping test (c)
Monte-Carlo - The IAAF acknowledges the information received today from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that the seven Russian athletes charged with urine substitution prior to the Beijing Olympic Games have been suspended for a period of 2 years and 9 months, and have had all their results from the date of the infraction annulled (see below for full details).

This IAAF appeal to CAS of the original decision(s) was made because it was unacceptable to the IAAF that these athletes who had 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. Considering the circumstances surrounding these cases, the IAAF had also requested to CAS an extended sanction of up to four years. The IAAF is pleased to note that the starting date of the sanctions has been amended and also the length of sanction increased over and above the minimum 2 years.

This decision also supports the actions of the IAAF in pro-actively targeting, investigating, and prosecuting doping cases with non traditional methods – in this case the storage of samples and the comparison of DNA. It should provide a strong warning to any athletes who are considering doping that their samples will be stored and may be later re-analysed meaning they are never safe from the detection of their cheating against their fellow athletes.

The details of the sanctions are as follows:

Olga Yegorova: 31.07.08 – 30.04.11, annulment of results achieved since 07.04.07
Svetlana Cherkasova: 31.07.08 – 30.04.11, annulment of results achieved since 26.04.07
Yuliya Fomenko: 31.07.08 – 30.04.11, annulment of results achieved since 27.04.07
Gulfiya Khanafeyeva: 31.07.08 – 30.04.11, annulment of results achieved since 09.05.07
Tatyana Tomashova: 31.07.08 – 30.04.11, annulment of results achieved since 23.05.07
Yelena Soboleva: 31.07.08 – 30.04.11, annulment of results achieved since 26.04.07
Darya Pishchalnikova: 31.07.08 – 30.04.11, annulment of results achieved since 10.04.07

The press release from CAS is available at www.tas-cas.org in both French and English

IAAF