Russian Olympic champions Natalya Antyukh, Andrey Silnov receive four-year bans for doping, says CAS

Lausanne: Russian Olympic champions Natalya Antyukh and Andrey Silnov have each been banned for four years for doping after being named in the 2016 McLaren report, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Wednesday. Antyukh and Silnov were both charged last year with anti-doping violations stemming from the report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency that alleged a system of state-sponsored doping had existed in Russia. Silnov, 36, won the high jump title at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Antyukh, 39, was the gold medallist in the women’s 400-metre hurdles at the 2012 London Games. She also won bronze in the 400m and a silver medal in the 4x400m relay in Athens in 2004. Both athletes will retain those medals because CAS ruled that only their results from 2013 onwards will be annulled. Silnov has not competed since 2016 but was vice-president of the Russian athletics federation until 2019, when he stood down. Sport’s top court also punished two other Russian athletes named in the McLaren report, middle distance runner Yelena Soboleva and hammer thrower Oksana Kondratyeva. Soboleva was banned for eight years and had all her results from 2011 to 2016 annulled, CAS said without giving its reasons for the decision. She has already been stripped of her 1500m silver medal from the 2007 world championships. Kondratyeva, who never won a major medal, was banned for four years. CAS also cut the length of bans for four Russians, including high jumper Ivan Ukhov whose ban was reduced from four years to two years, nine months. The decision has no bearing on an earlier ruling to strip Ukhov of the 2012 Olympic high jump title for doping.