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The 29-year-old Savina, whose ban essentially
ends her career, tested positive in an out-of-competition test
for the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO last year and was
provisionally suspended.
She claimed at the time it was her coach and husband Alexei
Savin who had needed the medication to treat what she said was
chronic renal failure, and that it must has been mixed up with
her own back pain medication, the AIU said.
After Savina provided medical documents to support the claim
that her husband had chronic renal failure, further
investigation by the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) for the
AIU showed the documents had been forged.
"The Athlete failed to respond as required by the specified
deadline of 17 April 2019 and she is therefore deemed... to have
admitted the first and second anti-doping rule violations and to
have acceded to the consequences specified in the notice of
charge," the AIU said in a statement.
Savina's suspension period is 12 years and all her results since
May 2018 are void, the AIU said.
Such lengthy bans are uncommon but the athlete's attempts to
shift blame and avoid sanctions by providing false documentation
added another anti-doping rule violation in her case.
Savin, her coach, received a four-year ban for violating
anti-doping regulations, the AIU said in a separate statement.
Russia has been rocked by several sporting bans in recent years
after international investigations found evidence of widespread,
state-sponsored doping in athletics and a string of other
sports.
Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA and Russia's athletics
federation were suspended after a 2015 report commissioned by
the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found evidence of
state-sponsored doping in Russian athletics.
RUSADA was reinstated last year, while Russia's athletics
federation remains suspended by the global athletics governing
body IAAF.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Karolos Grohmann;
editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
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