Russian Olympic Champions Natalya Antyukh And Andrei Silnov Banned For Doping

Natalya Antyukh: The Court of Arbitration (CAS) for Sport said on Wednesday that Russian Olympic champions Andrei Silnov and Natalya Antyukh have been banned for four years for doping offences.

Both of them were charged last year with using or attempting to use a method or substance that was prohibited. The charges stemmed from an investigation carried out by a World Anti-Doping Agency into Russian doping in 2016.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Andrei Silnov won gold Beijing Olympics. In 2004, Natalya Antyukh won bronze in the 400 and silver in the 4x400 relay. In the 2012 London Games, she won the title in 400-meter hurdles. Both of them will keep their Olympic medals.

None of the athletes has competed since 2016. But until June 2019, Silnov was the senior vice president of the Russian track federation. He stepped down after an Athletics Integrity Unit investigation into his conduct.

CAS did not give details regarding the cases and also did not say when the verdicts were handed down. They were published in a summary of several cases and appeals that concerned 12 Russians.

In 2006, Yelena Soboleva, won a silver medal in world indoor championship. She was banned for a term of 8 years after violating the anti-doping regulations. Hammer thrower Oksana Kondratyeva was disqualified from the fifth place at the world championships in 2013. She was banned for a period of four years.

CAS reduced the length of bans for four Russians, one of whom is the high jumper Ivan Uknov. His tenure of ban was lessened from four years to two years, nine months. The ruling does not reverse a decision earlier taken in a case of doping to strip Uknov of the 2012 Olympic high jump gold. Similarly, the term of Shkolina's ban imposed in 2019 was reduced to two years and nine months. They were both ruled out of Tokyo Olympics in the year 2019.

Image Source: The Indian Express