Geneva: World sport`s top court on Wednesday partly accepted an appeal by athletics` governing body over a ban on seven Russian women athletes, effectively ruling them out of the World Championships next month.
The women - including former 1500m world champion Tatyana Tomashova - were found to have switched urine samples during drug tests in the spring of 2007.
They were banned by the Russian athletics federation (ARAF) for the minimum two years, retroactively from the date the samples were submitted.
But the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled after an appeal by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) that they should be suspended for two years and nine months instead, and from the moment they were first provisionally suspended in July 2008.
The other athletes banned are middle-distance runners Yelena Soboleva, Svetlana Cherkasova, Yulia Fomenko and Olga Yegorova, former world champion hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva and European discus champion Darya Pischalnikova.
"The Decisions of the ARAF Council dated 20 October 2008 regarding the athletes Olga Yegorova, Svetlana Cherkasova, Yuliya Fomenko, Gulfiya Khanafeyeva, Tatyana Tomashova, Yelena Soboleva and Darya Pishchalnikova, are set aside," CAS said in a statement.
In each instance, "the period of ineligibility, therefore, expires on 30 April 2011," it added after the ruling by its panel.
The IAAF had also asked for the suspensions to be increased to four years when it lodged the appeal late last year.
The CAS also annulled all the athletes` competitive results since the offence was committed in April and May 2007.
The case came to light during an IAAF investigation in which DNA from stored samples provided in the spring of 2007 was compared with DNA from other samples taken from the athletes.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 23:07
