Twelve Russian athletes banned for doping

High jumpers Ivan Ukhov and Svetlana Shkolina have been respectively stripped of their 2012 Olympic and 2013 world championship titles after they were banned with 10 other Russian athletes for doping.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) announced suspensions ranging between two and eight years while ruling on the cases instead of the suspended Russian Athletics Federation.

The court has been investigating allegations of doping based on evidence from the McLaren report, which uncovered state-sponsored doping in Russia when it was published in 2016.

Unless he lodges an appeal, Ukhov, 32, effectively faces a career ending four-year ban from Friday. All his results between 16 July 2012 and 31 July 2015 have been scratched.

On 7 August 2012 at the Olympic Stadium in east London, Ukhov claimed gold with a leap of 2.38 metres. Erik Kynard from the United States took silver and three men – Britain's Robbie Grabarz, Canada's Derek Drouin and Mutaz Essa Barshim from Qatar – won the bronze with jumps of 2.29 metres. They all stand to be upgraded.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) banned Russia from competing in its competitions in November 2015. Last month it upheld the country's suspension into 2019.

Cas began investigating the suspected dopers on behalf of the IAAF.

"In all cases, the athletes have been found guilty of anti-doping rule violations under the IAAF rules and individual sanctions have been imposed by Cas on each of the 12 athletes concerned," the court said in a statement.

Career ending
Shkolina, 32, confronts a similar plight to Ukhov after also receiving a four year ban from 1 February. All of her achievements between 16 July 2012 and 28 July 2015 have been erased.

Her world championship gold – courtesy of a 2.03 metre leap – came in front of adoring home crowds during the Moscow world championships in 2013.

Eight year bans were given to the hammer throwers Gulfiya Agafonova Khanafeeva and Tatyana Lysenko Beloborodva.

Khanafeeva's punishment was backdated to January 2017 and Beloborodva's to July 2016.

The other bans were handed out to the sprinter Tatyana Firova, triple jumper Lyukman Adams and hammer throwers Anna Bulgakova and Mariya Bespalova.

Shot putter Ivan Yushkov, the discus thrower Vera Karmishina-Ganeeva and the 100 metre hurdles pair, Ekaterina Galitskaya and Yuliya Kondakova have also been sanctioned.