(Reuters) – Russia’s five-time world champion weightlifter and Olympic medalist Tatiana Kashirina has been suspended for breaching an anti-doping rule, Russian news agency TASS reported on Sunday.
Kashirina, who won silver at the 2012 Olympics and five gold medals at the world championships between 2010 and 2018, was one of the favorites for a gold medal at next year’s Tokyo Games.
The report said Kashirina, 29, was suspended after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) conducted dop test results of Russian athletes from 2012 to 2015 from the Moscow Laboratory during a study.
She previously held two years off from 2006-08 for breaching anti-whipping rules and her latest ban will prevent her from competing during the qualifying Games Games run. to April, 2021.
Kashirina had to compete as a neutral as Russian athletes remain barred from major international events, including the Olympics, under the country’s flag until 2022.
A Swiss court upheld sanctions on Russia this week but suspended the original four-year WADA ban.
Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, edited by Ed Osmond