International governing body disagrees with “selective disqualification of results” in recent biological passport cases

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is appealing the decisions made by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in the recent biological passport cases of Valeriy Borchin, Olga Kaniskina, Sergey Bakulin, Sergey Kirdyapkin, Vladimir Kanaykin and Yuliya Zaripova.

An IAAF statement read: “While the IAAF agrees with RUSADA that there is, in each case, sufficient evidence of an anti-doping rule violation and that there are aggravating circumstances justifying an increased sanction of more than two years, the IAAF disagrees with the selective disqualification of results applied by RUSADA as a consequence of the previous rulings.”

The appeal has been filed by the IAAF to the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Olympic 3000m steeplechase gold medallist Zaripova, who also won the world title in 2011, had received a ban of two and a half years backdated from July 25, 2013, by RUSADA. That was accompanied by two periods in which her results were to be annulled from June 20, 2011, to August 20, 2011, and July 3, 2012, to September 3, 2012. Those dates in 2011 do not include when she won her world title in Daegu.

Kirdyapkin, who won Olympic 50km race walk gold in London in 2012, was handed a ban of three years and two months from October 15, 2012, with results from July 20, 2009 to September 20, 2009; June 29, 2010 to August 29, 2010, and December 17, 2011 to June 11, 2012, to be annulled. Given those date ranges, that would not affect his London 2012 gold but could mean a loss of his 2009 world 50km title.

Kaniskina, who won the women s 20km race walk title at the Beijing Games in 2008, received a ban from RUSADA of the same length from October 15, 2012, with the cancellation of results from July 15, 2009, to September 16, 2009, and July 30, 2011 to November 8, 2011. Those date ranges also included when two world titles were claimed.

Borchin, who claimed the men’s Olympic 20km race walk title in Beijing, was handed an eight-year ban from October 15, 2012, for a second doping offence. RUSADA also announced a loss of results for him from July 14, 2009 to September 15, 2009; June 16, 2011 to September 27, 2011 and April 11, 2012 to September 3, 2012, with those date ranges including when he won two world titles.

Bakulin, the 2011 world 50km race walk champion, and 2011 20km race walk silver medallist Kanaykin also received bans, which were among those announced in January. RUSADA announced a three years and two month ban from October 15, 2012, for Bakulin, while Kanaykin received a life ban.

A doping ban of 2011 world heptathlon champion Tatyana Chernova was announced in January, at the same time that Zaripova’s suspension was reported. Chernova had received a two-year backdated ban, starting from July 22, 2013, with her results from August 15, 2009, to August 14, 2011, to be annulled. Her 2011 world title, which she claimed in Daegu ahead of Britain s London 2012 Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill, was won 16 days after the end of that date range.

The IAAF confirmed that the RUSADA decision made in Chernova’s case is still under review.

The IAAF statement can be found here.

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