MOSCOW, Russia – Five Russian race-walkers, including three Olympic gold medalists, have been banned by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency due to anomalies in their respective biological passports, inform AP.
They are 2012 50km Olympic champion Sergey Kirdyapkin, 2008 Olympic 20km champion Olga Kaniskina, and 2011 50km World champion Sergey Bakulin. They have all received bans of three years and two months. All three doping cases have been backdated to late 2012.
Meanwhile, 2008 Olympic 20km champion Valery Borchin has been banned for eight years, from October 2008, for a second doping offense, while 2011 World medallist Vladimir Kanaykin was banned for life for a repeat offense.
Kaniskina and Borchin will lose their World 20km titles from 2009 and 2011, while Kirdyapkin will lose his World 50km title from 2009 and also World Cup win 2012. Bakulin will lose 2011 50km gold and Kanaykin will also lose his world 20km silver from 2011.
The athletes that look set to be upgraded to World champions are Trond Nymark from Norway (50 km, 2009), Wang Hao of China (20 km men, 2009), Olive Loughnane of Ireland (20 km women, 2009), Luis Fernando Lopez of Colombia (20 km men, 2011), Denis Nizhegorodov (50 km men, 2011) and Liu Hong of China (20 km women, 2011).
