Seven of Russia's leading women athletes have been banned from competing in the upcoming Olympic Games following what the IAAF are describing as tampering with the urine samples provided for testing, writes Health24's FitnessDoc, sports scientist Dr Ross Tucker from the University of Cape Town.
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The rule in question is 32.2, and bans the women for "a fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process". It seems that the IAAF did DNA analysis on various samples provided by the Russians, and found that the DNA did not match.
The seven women include some big names, especially in the world of middle distance running:
Tatyana Tomashova - twice world 1 500 m champion
Yelena Soboleva - world indoor 1 500 m champion and current world leader over 800 m and 1 500 m
Olga Yegorova - former world 5 000 m champion
Of these three, the biggest disappointment is Soboleva. About two weeks ago Soboleva ran a brilliant 1:54.85 to win the Russian championships. It was the fastest time in the world this year, beating even the incredible performances of Pamela Jelimo of Kenya.
When the news broke of that performance, a huge part of me was sceptical, but hope does tend to die hard, and a tiny sliver of hope was looking forward to a race between Soboleva and Jelimo in Beijing. As it the situation now seems to be developing, Jelimo will likely be unchallenged in Beijing, and the Games has been denied a great race. If that race was only drug-induced, of course, then it's irrelevant, but a shame nonetheless.
As for the 1 500 m event, it also loses a huge name in Tomashova, who has three major medals from the last four outdoor championships, including two golds (Paris and Helsinki). The race will of course be a little more open without her.
Russia's women: A doping flag
Consider the following facts about Russia's women:
In 2007, the top 10 lists over 800 m featured only two Russian women. As of today, they had eight out of the top nine (only Jelimo is non-Russian in second position).
Three of their 800 m women have improved by over 2 seconds in 2008 alone.
Over 5 000 m, Russian women are ranked third and fourth, and another two in the top 10 list this year. In 2007, they did not have a single runner in the top-10, suddenly now they have four.
In track events from 400 m up to 10 000 m, Russia owns 24 out of the top 60 performances. That's 40 percent, and in 2007, they only had 18 percent of the leading performers.
Finally, consider that the Russian women who feature in these top 10 lists have only run these times in Russia, and not on the European circuit (Golden Leagues and IAAF events). That is grounds for suspicion, regardless of your hope in clean competition.
The bigger picture
Looking at the bigger picture, however, this story is another encouraging step in the right direction for the authorities.
There was a time where this would never have happened, and the IAAF might have continued to analyse the urine unsuspecting. But the early reports suggest that the IAAF specifically did the DNA analysis as part of an investigation they have been carrying out for more than a year.
That kind of targeted approach is paying off, and it will be interesting to see how the story develops in the next few days, or whether it will remain somewhat hush-hush. It would seem that the IAAF have identified "high-risk" athletes and targeted them in a specific testing approach.
No control over the doping process
One other point that must be made is that the fact that the women could submit fake samples means that there must be some kind of conspiracy or assistance from within the federation or meeting organisation level.
The doping process is strictly controlled, right down to the point where an official will usually accompany an athlete to make sure that the urine sample collected belongs to the athlete.
(We can of course remember the famous Hungarian discuss thrower in Athens who implanted a bag of urine in his bladder and ran a catheter out through his penis to falsely provide someone else's urine).
The fact that the Russian women have managed to submit somebody else's urine should be of concern to the IAAF, the IOC and WADA, because it means that the "illusion of control" that the authorities think they have is clearly just that, an illusion.
These women were able to provide samples "officially" without any direct observation of wrong-doing. Who were the "accomplices" and how did the women get away with it?
Let's hope that the biggest impact of this particular story (apart from losing out on Russia's women in the Games) is that we get a step closer to learning how the cheats operate. – (Fitness Doc, Dr Ross Tucker, August 2008)
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