MOSCOW: Former world youth race-walking champion Sergey Morozov has been given a life ban for breaking anti-doping regulations, the Russian athletics federation (VFLA) said yesterday.
Morozov, 24, who won the 2005 world youth title in the 10,000 metres race walk, has shown an “abnormal haemoglobin profile in his biological passport”, the VFLA said on its website (rusathletics.com).
It was his second doping offence.
The Russian was considered a medal contender for the 2008 Beijing Olympics after setting a 20-km world record time of one hour, 16:43 minutes at the national championships earlier that year.
But his time was never ratified by the world’s governing body IAAF because of a lack of doping control at the event.
Morozov, who also won the 2007 European junior title, could not compete in Beijing because he was handed a two-year ban after testing positive.
It was the latest in a series of doping offences by Russian athletes in less than two weeks.
On Friday, the VFLA banned European junior race-walking champion Tatyana Mineyeva for two years after she failed a drugs test, while the IAAF placed Olympic 2004 hammer champion Olga Kuzenkova under investigation after she also tested positive. REUTERS
