7 Russian athletes busted for doping

[August 01, 2008]  MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AP) -- Seven Russian female athletes, including an indoor world record holder and a two-time world champion, were provisionally suspended Thursday by the IAAF for doping-related matters.

Yelena Soboleva, who set a world record in the 1,500-meter race at this year's indoor world championships, was one of the seven charged "for a fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process."

Two-time world 1,500 champion Tatyana Tomashova was also suspended, along with middle-distance runners Yulia Fomenko, Svetlana Cherkasova and Olga Yegorova, and hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva and discus thrower Darya Pishchalnikova.

Soboleva, Khanafeyeva and Pishchalnikova were on the Russian team's roster for the Beijing Olympics, according to the Web site of the European Athletics Federation.

[Associated Press]

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