It was almost two seasons in which the Russian walkers do not appear in the starting lists of major nternational walk competitions.

We remind our readers that in a out of competition control carried out in Saransk June 2, 2015, before the World Championships of Beijing 2015, had been found positive to EPO five Russians athletes. The news reported by the Russian Agency Tass and picked up from the German Magazine Sportshau and the Channel Television ARD immediately went around the world and was the straw that broke the camel inducing the Russian Federation to self-exclude its walkers from the Beijing Championships.

Yesterday the Tribunal Arbitral du Sport has put an end to this story, replacing the Russian Federation as suspended by the IAAF.

Ivan Noskov, Mikhail Rizhov, Vera Sokolova and Denis Strelkov have all been sanctioned for a 4-year period of ineligibility starting on 15 July 2016. Furthermore all competitive results obtained by them in the period from 2 June 2015 to 15 July 2015 were deleted with all the consequences.

Elmira Alembekova was however also sanctioned for four years, but with a slightly different period starting on July 17, 2016. For her all the results obtained in the period 2 June 2015 to 17 July 2015 were canceled with all the consequences of the case.

The decision of the TAS-CAS has therefore left intact the results of such athletes in the European Cup which took place in Murcia on May 17, 2015. We remember them:

Official media release by TAS-CAS: click here