Paris: A Russian athlete who infamously used the identity of a friend to circumnavigate her country's state-sponsored doping suspension was on Wednesday handed a 12-year ban, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced.
- Kseniya Savina, 29, underwent an out-of-competition control in Ifrane, Morocco, on May 15, 2018, with banned blood booster EPO detected in her sample.
- She blamed the positive test on her housekeeper mixing up her back pain medication with pills her husband and coach Aleksei Savin was taking for chronic renal failure. She claimed it had happened "whilst laying the table for lunch".
- An investigation by the AIU with the help of Russia's anti-doping agency RUSADA discovered that Savin had never been prescribed this medication.
- Records supplied by Savina from a clinic in her home town of Simferopol were proved to be forged.
- Her husband was given a four-year ban for his part in the deception.
Savina, who has retired from competition, is also under investigation for an extraordinary case of false identity.
The tale began in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, then part of Ukraine, and home to Savina, then a promising track athlete.
Savina took on Russian nationality following Crimea's annexation and began to compete for her adopted country.