The union appointed a trio of Jelena Lašmanová, Olga Kaniskinová and Sergej Kirďapkin. What they all have in common is that they were top medal-winning walkers. And also the fact that they later lost them when they were convicted of doping fraud. Now they have to oversee their successors…
“It is a great honor for me to become a member of the coaching staff of the Russian national team. I will try to repay the trust and prepare the trustees. I have a lot of experience, which can help me in my preparation,” Lašmanova told Sports.ru.
The now 31-year-old native of Saransk, the center of Russian walking, was the first in the twenty-something finish line at the London Olympics, and a year later she was celebrated at home after winning the World Championships in Moscow. In 2014, her positive doping test came to light and she was banned for three years. Even during it, according to the testimony, she continued to race in Russian Mordvinsk.
The 43-year-old Kirďapkin won his 50th at the same games, he won world titles at the championships in 2005 and 2009. However, due to irregularities in his biological passport, even he did not escape punishment. Kaniskinová won the World Championships in Osaka 2007 and the Olympics in Beijing, she was punished only later, so she lost only the golds from the World Championships 2009 in Berlin and 2011 in Daegu.
All of them belonged to the group of the controversial coach Viktor Čegin, from which three dozen pedestrians were disqualified for doping and the coach himself was punished for life.
The doping penalty has expired
Russian athletes were convicted of state-run doping during the investigation, and in 2016, the head of the association, Valentin Balachnichev, was also suspended for life by the IAAF athletics federation. According to the report of the investigative commission, officials covered up a total of 139 positive tests of athletes.
In 2019, Russians began returning to athletics competition as individuals sanctioned by the IAAF, now World Athletics. After paying a fine of 10 million dollars and making systemic changes, the sentence was completely lifted last March, but in the meantime sanctions came due to the war in Ukraine.
The current step will certainly not help the credibility of Russian athletics, even if the World Anti-Doping Association cannot object to it in any way. “All of them have served their sentences for violating the rules, so they can come back if they meet the anti-doping rules. The appointment of coaches is fully within the competence of the Russian authorities,” WADA told insidethegames.biz.