Olympics: Suspended Russian Athletes Were Part of Doping Ring, Claims Ioc

The International Olympic Committee today said a case of "systematic planned doping" has been uncovered following last week's suspension of seven female Russian athletes accused of tampering with urine samples.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has provisionally suspended the athletes, five of whom were due to compete in Beijing. They include 800m and 1,500m runner Yelena Soboleva and 2004 silver medalist Tatyana Tomashova, who could both face four-year bans under new rules.

"This does seem to be an example of systematic planned doping, and under the new Wada code that would mean an expanded ban of four years,'' Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the IOC's medical commission and vice-president of the world anti-doping agency (Wada), said today.

"The federation have done a very good job in revealing a very bad doping story which is just frustrating to find. It's sad and very disappointing that this type of planned cheating is still going on. There is a due procedure for the Russian federation to follow but the data is convincing and the DNA analysis is 100%. If the urine is proved to not be theirs then they certainly have a case to answer,'' he added.

It has also emerged today that two Russian Olympic walkers were prevented joining the team for Beijing after failing drug tests. Their coach, Viktor Chegin, admitted that Vladimir Kanaikin and Valery Borchin tested positive for the banned drug EPO in out-of-competition tests in April.