MOSCOW: The Russian athletics federation said on Tuesday that Olympic race walking champion Elena Lashmanova could miss the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro because she competed while serving a doping ban.

Lashmanova is serving a two-year suspension after testing positive for the banned substance GW1516. The ban is set to expire in February 2016, leaving Lashmanova free to defend her Olympic title.

But it is now set to be extended after she was pictured apparently violating the terms of her ban by competing at a Russian meet in December.

Acting Russian athletics federation president Vadim Zelichenok told the R-Sport agency that there is “a very high probability” that Lashmanova’s ban will be reset to start from Dec 30.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2015

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