CAS hits 12 Russians with doping bans including Olympic champ Ukhov

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has banned 12 Russian track and field athletes after they were found guilty of doping violations.

Acting on the basis of the McLaren report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), CAS issued the athletes with varying bans, some of up to eight years.

Among those sanctioned was London 2012 Olympic high jump champion Ivan Ukhov.

In issuing the bans, CAS was acting for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in the absence of the suspended Russian Athletics Federation (RUSAF).

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In its ruling, CAS said the athletes “participated in and/or benefited from anabolic steroid doping programs and benefited from specific protective methods” in 2012-2013.

Ukhov and fellow high-jumper Svetlana Shkolina, who claimed bronze in London in 2012 and gold at the 2013 World Championships, were both handed four-year bans, active from February 1.

They were also retrospectively disqualified and stripped of their medals, as Russia will lose two further medals from the 2012 Games.

Svetlana Shkolina was among those banned. © Reuters / Dominic Ebenbichler

Russia will lose the gold medals Shkolina and hammer thrower Tatyana Beloborodova won at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.

As per Reuters, the other athletes sanctioned with varying bans were 400m runner Tatyana Firova (4 years, backdated to June 2016), triple jumper Lyukman Adams (4 years from January 2019), hammer thrower Anna Bulgakova (4 years from March 2017), hammer thrower Gulfiya Agafonova-Khanafeeva (8 years from January 2017), shot putter Ivan Yushkov (4 years from July 2016), hammer thrower Mariya Bespalova (already suspended from October 2015), discus thrower Vera Ganeeva (2 years from July 2018), 100m hurdler Yekaterina Galitskaia (4 years from February 2019) and 100m hurdler Yuliya Kondakova (4 years from February 2019).

Russia has denied claims of a state-sponsored doping effort, but has admitted mistakes with its anti-doping system.

Russia recently provided WADA with access to data at the contentious Moscow anti-doping laboratory at the center of the claims, as part of a deal to reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency last year.