Twice world 1,500 meters champion Tatyana Tomashova was one of seven Russian female athletes to receive a two-year doping ban on Monday for manipulating drug samples, the Russian athletics federation (RAF) said. Along with Tomashova, world indoor 1,500 meters champion Yelena Soboleva, distance runners Yuliya Fomenko and Svetlana Cherkasova, European discus champion Darya Pishchalnikova, former hammer world record holder Gulfia Khanafeyeva and former world 5,000 meters champion Olga Yegorova were banned. “All seven women were found guilty and thus were banned for two years,” RAF president Valentin Balakhnichyov told reporters. The International Association of Athletics Federations suspended the seven women in July and banned them from competing at the Beijing Olympics in August after charging them with manipulating their drug samples. “The athletes have been charged under IAAF Rules 32.2 (b) and 32.2 (e) for a fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process,” the sport's world governing body said at the time. The IAAF said their drug samples taken in out-of-competition tests in May 2007 and then at last year's world championships in Osaka did not match.
