Seven Russian athletes have been provisionally suspended for doping offences, the International Association of Athletics Federations has announced.

Five of the seven, including Yelena Soboleva and Tatyana Tomashova, were bound for Beijing.

Distance runner Yulia Fomenko, Darya Pishchalnikova (discus) and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva (hammer) were the other Russia Olympic squad members.

The other two athletes are Svetlana Cherkasova and Olga Yegorova.

Soboleva - the reigning 1500m world indoor champion - is the world leader over 800m and 1500m this year, while Tomashova was world champion in 2003 and 2005 and claimed silver at the Athens Olympics four years ago.

Fomenko finished second behind Soboleva over 1500m at the world indoor championships in Valencia earlier this year.

The two field-eventers are also of pedigree, with Pishchalnikova the reigning European discus champion and hammer thrower Khanafeyeva a former world record holder.

The seven have been charged under IAAF rules for a "fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process", according to a statement from the world governing body.

The statement continued: "These rule violations were established following the deliberate storage of samples by the IAAF and re-analysis using comparative DNA techniques, and were the result of a specific investigation which was instigated and carried out by the IAAF for more than a year.

"The IAAF will make no further comment until a final decision has been taken by the ARAF (All Russia Athletics Federation), which now takes over the responsibility to adjudicate these cases."

The athletes have up to 14 days to request a hearing with the national member federation.

If a hearing is requested, it must be held within a period of two months.

The Beijing Olympics athletics schedule is get under way on Friday 15 August.

(BBC)

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