In a major doping scandal, seven female Russian track and field athletes face 2 year bans for doping test irregularities. The group includes world champions, and world record holders like Yelena Soboleva.
http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2008/10/seven-russians.html
The interesting part is this bit...
"The bans come into action from April or May 2007, the date when the samples were given for tests."
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gsYXX_ZtQlgD3bYfxfqUbskUBsgg
So that would imply that following record times by Soboleva would be removed from the record books...
Outdoor:
* 800 metres - 1:54.85 s NR (2008)
Indoor:
* 800 metres - 1:56.48 s NR (2008)
* 1500 metres - 3:57.71 s WR (2008)
* Mile - 4:20.21 s NR (2008)
Might we also see a redistribution of medals from championships such as 2008 world indoors 1500m?
Surely Gelete Burka should be the 2008 1500m gold medalist?
From the article.
The athletes banned were middle distance runners Yelena Soboleva, Svetlana Cherkasova, Yulia Fomenko, former double world champion Tatyana Tomashova and Olga Yegorova, hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva - a former world champion, and reigning European discus champion Darya Pishchalnikova.
Interesting that Olga Yegerova was named. Didn't she test positive before for EPO. I seem to recall Paula holding an "EPO Cheats Out" sign in Edmonton which was directed towards her.
The same Olga Yegerova.
More on BBC Sport...
Seven Russians handed doping bans
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/7679893.stm
Russian 'dopers' were tipped off
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/athletics/7538731.stm
"Russian Yegorova was booed on her way to claiming the 5,000m title at the World Championships in Edmonton in 2001.
She had tested positive for EPO but had been reinstated in the event on a technicality concerning the drugs test.
Before the heats for the women's 5,000m Paula Radcliffe and Great Britain team-mate Hayley Tullett held up a sign in the stands reading "EPO cheats out."
The same Olga Yegerova.
More on BBC Sport...
Seven Russians handed doping bans
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/7679893.stm
Russian 'dopers' were tipped off
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/athletics/7538731.stm
"Russian Yegorova was booed on her way to claiming the 5,000m title at the World Championships in Edmonton in 2001.
She had tested positive for EPO but had been reinstated in the event on a technicality concerning the drugs test.
Before the heats for the women's 5,000m Paula Radcliffe and Great Britain team-mate Hayley Tullett held up a sign in the stands reading "EPO cheats out."
Wow. They'll all be fresh and ready to go in Berlin next year. Gotta love those retroactive 2-year handslaps....
grg wrote:
In a major doping scandal, seven female Russian track and field athletes face 2 year bans for doping test irregularities. The group includes world champions, and world record holders like Yelena Soboleva.
http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2008/10/seven-russians.html
I am highlighting this story 100% as the #1 story on the homepage for tomorrow. THE SPORT AND PUBLIC NEED TO STOP LOOKING THE OTHER WAY.
The Russians decision to backdate the suspensions is embarrassing. Every time I think the tide has turned in the anti-doping world, I read a story like this and forget half the world hasn't even begun to have their post 2002 type USATF moment of "Oh shit, we need to lead the anti-drug movement instead of leading the cover-up movement."
This is so ridiculous and 100% unjustifiable.
Any athelete who refuses a drug test should receive a global lifetime ban by all federations in all sports.
Just goes to show you we need to do blood tests instead.
Refusniks wrote:
Any athelete who refuses a drug test should receive a global lifetime ban by all federations in all sports.
This matter has nothing to do with refusing a drug test so why are you bringing that up?
FYI, the penalty for refusing a drug test has alwasy been the same as the longest penalty for a positive test (now 4 years for 1st offense and lifetime for 2nd offense).
My understanding is that the Russian athletes were not banned, as they did not fail any tests, but where disqualified from competing because their tests were "too clean".
Thus they should not have been banned at all, as they did not fail any tests.
This is just another nail in the coffin of the bogus drug "testing" regime.
J.R. wrote:
My understanding is that the Russian athletes were not banned, as they did not fail any tests, but where disqualified from competing because their tests were "too clean".
Thus they should not have been banned at all, as they did not fail any tests.
This is just another nail in the coffin of the bogus drug "testing" regime.
The samples the seven athletes were providing were not theirs! The DNA did not match! Why would they do this?? Do you think they couldn't be arsed to pee into a bottle, so got a mate to do it for them??!!
Look at the case of Marion Jones. Never got caught but guilty as sin and has admitted as so.
And Tomashova (sp?) is going to argue her case because of a technicality!! Have these people got no morals whatsoever!
I think the gravity of this warrants the russian federation being banned for a year or two from iaaf competition...
It depends on how you look at it... the backdating is needed so that all results from April 2007 (including Osaka and Valencia) are considered null and void... because if the athlete is banned from April 2007, then those results since April 2007 can not be considered to be part of the official record.
I think it should work both ways... the results should be annulled from April 2007 and the ban should apply from when the athletes was suspended (July 2008).
However, the most important thing is that those April 2007 to July 2008 medals, world records and season best times should not be allowed to stand.
If it should work both ways, prior results annulled and the ban start when the athletes were suspended, then it would be a 3+ year ban.
Is anybody familiar with the procedure of taking samples out of competition? My understanding is that an official of the same gender should be present at the time of the test. Is it possible for an athlete to substitute the sample without using a catheter?
The Russian logic is very Russian!
I guess they assume, of course, that they must have stopped this fradulent behavior just after submitting these samples...
But who would know better the real situation? Condeming westerners or Russian officials who were obviously in on the fraud from the beginning?
................ wrote:
It depends on how you look at it... the backdating is needed so that all results from April 2007 (including Osaka and Valencia) are considered null and void... because if the athlete is banned from April 2007, then those results since April 2007 can not be considered to be part of the official record.
I think it should work both ways... the results should be annulled from April 2007 and the ban should apply from when the athletes was suspended (July 2008).
It always has worked both ways. The banning of results always starts from the date the positive sample was taken, and has always done so. The suspension has always started from the date the anti-doping agency has suspended an athlete from competition. This date-suspension-starts usually begins a few months after the date-positive-sample was taken.
If you get suspended 2 years for a doping violation, that 2 year suspension will always end about 2 years and a few months after the date the positive sample was taken. It takes a few months for most anti-doping agencies to suspend an athlete after a positive sample is obtained. Time is needed for testing both the "A" and "B" samples and time is needed to give the athlete a chance to put forward his/her side of the story, and for the anti-doping agency to do its investigation of what the athlete contends happened. Then a suspension decision if finally made and announced to the public. In this Russian matter the period between the date of the positive test to the date the suspension was issued extended to an unusually long period of about a year.
The Russian backdating attempt has never been tried before by any anti-doping agency worldwide. The WADA code makes it very clear this can not be done. If you get a 2-year suspension, you can not compete at all for a consecutive 2-year period. End of discussion!!!
This matter will be a slam dunk for WADA to win if the Russian Athletic federation appeals this matter to CAS. I suspect the Russians will back off since what they are trying to do is clearly against what the is stated in the WADA code.
The Russians might have a case if these athletes did not compete at all after their first positive test over a year ago. But they did compete until mid 2008. Occasionally a suspension can be backdated to the date the athlete last competed, especially in "no significant fault" cases. But never further back then that.
Sometimes an athlete knows he/she tested positive, but due to extraordinary circumstances the athlete might be found to have not committed a doping violation (e.g., cross-contamination of supplement). Occasionally it might take 3-6 months to learn if the athlete will be suspended or not. Perhaps further tests need be done, or several experts need to be consulted.
If the athlete does not want to wait several months to find out if he/she will be suspended and have that suspension begin several months in the future, the athlete always has the option of signing a voluntary "provisional" suspension at any time. By signing a provisional suspension, the athlete agrees not to compete until anti-doping agency decides whether or not to suspend him. If 5 months out the athlete is suspended for a year, then the suspension starts (is backdated) the date the athlete signed the "provisional" suspension agreement -- and the athlete has only 7 months of suspension remaining to serve.
Of course if the anti-doping agency decides no doping violation has occurred, then the athlete's "provisional" suspension ends and he/she can immediately compete. Yes, in that case the athlete took a voluntary suspension that turned out to not be necessary. This is how things have always worked, at least since about 2002.
The WADA code is clear that a suspension can only be backdated to the date the athlete signed a provisional suspension. In cases where the athlete was found to have "no significant fault", occasionally the suspension might be backdated further to the date the athlete last competed (generally only under appeal). But that is the limit of backdating.
The Russian athletes could NOT have signed a provisional suspension until after they learned they had a possible doping violation, which was in mid 2008. They also competed at late as mid 2008. Therefore their 2-year suspensions can not be backdated earlier than mid 2008. The rules are so absolutely clear on this that I'm shocked the Russian Athletics Federation even tried to backdate these 2-year suspenions to 2007. This really shows that the top management of the Russian Athletic Federation is corrupt and needs to be replaced.
The appropriate action for the IAAF is to now decertify the Russian Athletic Federation and ban all Russian athletes from competiting in IAAF meets until a new anti-doping agency for T&F is formed in Russia to replace the current one. That new replacement anti-doping agency can not employ any senior management from the current decertified organization.
The IAAF is the toughest on anti-doping matters of all the world's sport governing bodies. If the Russians don't back off here, don't be surprised if the IAAF decertifies the Russian Athletic Federation. They have the power and the backbone to do this.
A quote from the uk.eurosport.yahoo.com link on the front page:
“ "All seven women were found guilty and thus were banned for two years," Russian Athletics Federation president Valentin Balakhnichyov said. … "We had undeniable proof of the athletes tampering with doping control process. … “
I guess the author was really “lost in translation”, as this is not what Balakhnichyov said:
allsport.ru interview:
http://www.allsport.ru/archive.php?id=19808&s_s=23&s_d=21&s_m=10&s_y=2008&b=0&l=40
The special committee of Russian Athletics Federation “could not find direct proof, which refute charges, that precisely the athletes carried out substitution of test samples. We do not have the explanations of sportswomen themselves, not corresponding statements of officers, critical for the taking of doping- tests, not video recordings of the moment of disturbance. There is - only motive, which is a sufficient, but not absolute fact of guilt. However, according to juridical practice, sportswomen, as the most motivated participants in the event, could have made infraction with the greatest probability.”
sport-express.ru interview:
http://www.sport-express.ru/art.shtml?168402
“Sportswomen did not produce the distinct explanation what happened” said Valentin Balakhnichev to the correspondent of Sport-Express Sergeyu Butov. “A commission of Russian Athletics Federation could not reveal any mitigating motives”
Slow again wrote:
Is anybody familiar with the procedure of taking samples out of competition? My understanding is that an official of the same gender should be present at the time of the test. Is it possible for an athlete to substitute the sample without using a catheter?
The answer is "no" or very unlikely. Out of competition testers travel generally in pairs, one male and one female. One of the testers (always of same gender) watches the athlete peeing into a bottle and then pouring the contents into a test tube which the athlete seals. The athlete opens a sealed test kit and does everything himself. The testers only carefully watch. They touch nothing!! The athlete then seals his samples back into the kit. Testers provide instructions every step of the way, but only touch the test kit before it is unsealed by the athlete and then after the athlete seals it back up.
Looks like the test kits are also put into temperature controlled Styrofoam which the testers likely mail to the lab. The athlete's name is never put into the kit, only a control number. The testers note the control number for the athlete and send this separately to the anti-doping agency (not the lab). The entire procedure has been very carefully worked out so the athlete can not claim some tester double-crossed him. It would take cooperation from both testers to do that and even then it would be very difficult as their are controld the prevent the testers from later unsealing and resealing the test kit they are to mail to the lab. I have also been told that the US Anti-doping agency rarely pairs off two testers together for more than a few times/year.
You never hear cheating athletes blame their positive test on the testers because the testing process is so carefully controlled. I've been thru one such test.
Note, the Russians females were successful in substituting urine because they injected themselves with someone else’s urine, using a catheter within 10-20 minutes before the testers arrived. They peed out that substitute urine while being watched by an unsuspecting tester (of same gender). They somehow got advance notice of when the testers would arrive. They needed advance notice, because the urine they injected into themselves was hard to keep in their bodies for more than 30 minutes or so.
This type of deceit will only work if the athlete knows almost exactly when the testers will arrive. It requires a corrupt employee in the anti-doping agency who has access to the out-of-competition (OOC) testing schedule. The Russian Athletics Federation may not be rotten to the core, but someone inside that organization had to be leaking the OOC testing schedule to doping athletes. In the US anti-doping agency, no more than 3-4 employees would have access to the OOC testing schedule. The fact that the Russians haven’t been able to catch the person who leaked the OOC testing schedule, shows they are either incompetent or senior management has something to hide. Either way the Russian Athletics Federation needs to be decertified by the IAAF.