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Russian athletes
part of doping ring — IOC
The International
Olympic Committee today said a case of "systematic planned doping"
has been uncovered following last week's suspension of seven female
Russian athletes accused of tampering with urine samples.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has
provisionally suspended the athletes, five of whom were due to
compete in Beijing. They include 800m and 1,500m runner Yelena
Soboleva and 2004 silver medallist Tatyana Tomashova, who could both
face four-year bans under new rules.
"This does seem to be an example of systematic planned doping, and
under the new Wada code that would mean an expanded ban of four
years,'' Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the IOC's medical
commission and vice-president of the world anti-doping agency
(Wada), said today.
"The federation have done a very good job in revealing a very bad
doping story which is just frustrating to find. It's sad and very
disappointing that this type of planned cheating is still going on.
There is a due procedure for the Russian federation to follow but
the data is convincing and the DNA analysis is 100%. If the urine is
proved to not be theirs then they certainly have a case to answer,''
he added.
It has also emerged today that two Russian Olympic walkers were
prevented from joining the team for Beijing after failing drug
tests. Their coach, Viktor Chegin, admitted that Vladimir Kanaikin
and Valery Borchin tested positive for the banned drug EPO in
out-of-competition tests in April.
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