Five Russian Athletes Receive Bans
Five Russian Athletes Receive Bans
The Russian athletics federation has suspended five athletes just days before the World Anti-Doping Agency is set to publish an extensive report that investigates Russian athletics. Two of the athletes who were suspended include marathoner Maria Konovalova and hammer thrower Maria Bespalova, according to a report from The Associated Press.
Konovalova received a two-year ban and was stripped of all results dating back to 2009. She was second at the Chicago Marathon in 2010 and third in 2013. The Russian athletics federation said that irregularities appeared in her biological passport.
Konovalova is the second female Russian marathoner to have her results from Chicago Marathon stripped in the last year, as three-time event winner Liliya Shobukhova was banned in 2014 in a separate doping case.
41-year-old Konovalova recently ran her fastest marathon of her career in March at the Nagoya International Marathon where she finished second in 2:22:27. The time was a new masters world record.
Bespalova, who finished 11th at the 2012 Olympic Games in the hammer throw, was banned for four years after testing positive for a steroid. She had thrown a season’s best mark of 73.74m in the 2015 season. Russian race-walker Evgeny Nushtaev and runners Vlas Bredikhin and Yaroslav Khlopov also received bans.
The World Anti-Doping Agency is scheduled to post a full report on its investigation into Russian athletics on Monday.