Russia’s second-most powerful track official on Friday stepped down amid a doping case, while seven other athletes are accused of training in secret with a banned coach.
The cases come as Russia tries to have its ban from international track competitions lifted in time for the World Championships in September and October.
Andrei Silnov, the 2008 Olympic high jump gold medalist, left his post as senior vice president of the All-Russia Athletic Federation and would no longer sit on its board.
Silnov is under investigation by the Athletics Integrity Unit, which handles international doping cases in track and field.
Neither he nor the unit have revealed the nature of the allegation against him.
Russian Anti-Doping Agency deputy CEO Margarita Pakhnotskaya told reporters that her agency found seven Russians — including athletes from the national team — training in Kyrgyzstan between November last year and April with coach Vladimir Kazarin, who was handed a lifetime doping ban in 2017.
They include runner Artyom Denmukhametov, who raced for Russia at the 2015 World Championships. He has been provisionally suspended.
Pakhnotskaya did not announce the names of the others.
Of the seven athletes, three are likely to escape with warnings for a first offense, but four face bans for a second offense of “prohibited association” with a banned coach.
The Russian agency said it targeted one unnamed female athlete for drug testing and she has already been banned for four years.
Kazarin previously worked with Mariya Savinova and Ekaterina Poistogova, who finished first and third respectively in the 800m at the 2012 Olympics, but were later banned for doping.
In 2017, the Court of Arbitration for Sports found that Kazarin possessed, trafficked and administered banned substances.
Despite Russia being officially banned from international events for widespread doping, dozens from the nation are allowed to compete as neutral athletes. None of the seven in Friday’s case had that status, Pakhnotskaya said.
It is not the first time Russian athletes have gone to Kyrgyzstan for illicit training camps. Last year, five Russians were stripped of their ability to compete internationally as neutrals after being found working with a banned race-walk coach there.
The International Association of Athletics Federations on Sunday last week extended the Russian team’s ban from international competitions, expressing concern about “apparent backsliding” on doping reforms.
The unit is also investigating whether officials filed fake medical documents to give a top athlete an alibi for failing to inform drug testers of his whereabouts.
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