IAAF provisionally suspend Russians - Sport in brief - Evening Standard
       

IAAF provisionally suspend Russians

The IAAF have provisionally suspended seven Russian athletes for doping offences.

Five of the seven - distance runners Yelena Soboleva, Tatyana Tomashova and Yulia Fomenko along with Darya Pishchalnikova (discus) and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva (hammer) - were due to compete at next month's Olympics in Beijing.

The other two athletes are Svetlana Cherkasova (800m) and Olga Yegorova (1500m/5000m).

The seven have been charged under IAAF rules 32.2 (b) and 32.2 (e) for a "fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process", according to a statement from the world governing body.

The statement continued: "These rule violations were established following the deliberate storage of samples by the IAAF and re-analysis using comparative DNA techniques, and were the result of a specific investigation which was instigated and carried out by the IAAF for more than a year.

"The IAAF will make no further comment until a final decision has been taken by the ARAF, which now takes over the responsibility to adjudicate these cases."

The athletes have up to 14 days to request a hearing with the national member federation. If a hearing is requested, it must be held within a period of two months.

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