By Bob Ramsak
Russian middle distance runners Yelena Soboleva and Tatyana Tomashova were among seven athletes who were handed two-year bans by the All Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) today, agencies are reporting.
The pair, along with middle distance runners Yulia Fomenko, Svetlana Cherkasova, and Olga Yegorova, and throwers Daria Pishchalnikova and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva, were provisionally suspended by the IAAF on the eve of the Olympic Games after a targeted investigation using DNA evidence found that they had tampered with the doping control process after fraudulently substituting urine.
Their bans are retroactive beginning on the dates that their samples were collected, according to the ARAF decision.
Soboleva's sample was collected on April 26, 2007, which will nullify two of her world indoor 1500m records set this year, a 3:58.05 performance on February 10, and then again a month later at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain, where she won gold in 3:57.71. She will also lose that indoor title along with the silver medal from last year's World Championships in Osaka.
Prior to her provisional suspension in late July, Soboleva produced then-world leading performances of 1:54.85 and 3:56.59, in the 800m and 1500m, respectively. Despite her indoor record spree last winter, Soboleva will still remain the world indoor record holder in the event. She set the previous record of 3:58.28 in 2006.
Fomenko, who raced to world indoor silver behind Soboleva in Valencia, will also lose her medal, as all her performances since April 27, 2007, will be nullified.
Tomashova, who raced sparingly this season, will have all of her results from May 23, 2007 wiped out. Cherkasova, whose ban begins on April 26, 2007, had 1:58.37 and 4:06.58 performances to her credit this season. The date for the start of Yegorova’s ban has yet to be confirmed. The 36-year-old was the controversial 2001 world champion in the 5000m.
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