Irish Racewalkers in Line for Olympic and World Championship Medal Upgrades?

In sensational development today, the Russian Federation Athletic Federation has suspended five racewalkers, including Sergey Kirdyapkin, gold medal winner in the men’s 50km race at the 2012 London Olympics, in which Togher AC athlete Rob Heffernan finished fourth.  If Kirdyapkin's suspension is confirmed for the period covering the London Olympics, Rob Heffernan will be awarded an Olympic Bronze, to go with his World Championship Bronze he was presented with, at a civic reception in Cork City Hall last month.

Olga Kaniskina, winner of the women’s 20km gold in Beijing Olympics (2008). Among her other major wins was the 20k at the 2009 World Championships, in Berlin, when Olive Loughnane took silver.
Olga Kaniskina has been coached by Viktor Chegin - more than a dozen athletes from this group have previously been suspended.  Again, if Kanastikina's suspension is confirmed, Olive Loughnane may see her World Championship Silver upgraded to Gold.

Two of the remaining three Russian athletes are Sergey Bakulin and Vladimir Kanaykin.

The suspensions arose from irregularities with biological passports, and provisional suspensions have been confirmed by the IAAF.  There is a long way to go before any medal upgrade is confirmed, resulting in the retrospective of medals to Cork based Olive Loughnane or Rob Heffernan, nevertheless the growing belief is that, at least some, medal upgrades will happen.  Much depends on the dates behind the biological passport irregularities.  No doubt there will be appeals, ultimately to CAS (Council for Arbitration in Sport).  The entire appeal process may take quite some time.

It would be great to see both Rob and Olive receive their respective medals, however the unfortunate thing is that both athletes will have been denied not only their rightful podium places, but also the earnings potential arising from the elevated status that would have gone with those podium places.

Update - Wed Jan 21st 2015

Another Russian, Elena Lashmanova, the 20km walk champion from the 2012 London Olympics, and 2013 World Champion had previously been suspended for two years, fordoping violations.  Last month, it was reported that her ban, due to be lifted in early 2016, allowing her the possibility of competing in the Rio Olympics, is now likely to be extended for at least a further two years. Apparently Lasmanova competed last month, in violation of her suspension. Initially she, and the meet officials, denied that she had taken part, claiming that the photos allegedly taken at the event, were historial ones and not from last months event.  However, she was wearing new running apparel which has only recently come on the market.

The Russian Athletic Federation list the five suspended athletes as;
Sergey Kirdyapkin, winner of the 50km walk at the 2012 London Olympics.  He has been banned for three years and two months.
Olga Kaniskina, winner of the 20km walk at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  She also has been banned for three years and two months.
Sergey Bakulin, winner of the 50km walk at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu. He has been banned for three years and two months, backdated to December 2012.
Valeriy Borchin, winner of the 20km walk at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. has been banned for eight years.
Vladimir Kanaykin has been banned for life

The tougher sanctions handed down to Borchin and Kanaykin were for second and repeat offences respectively.

Kirdyapkin’s three-year, two-month suspension has been backdated to October 15th, 2012.  His results have been annulled only for the following periods: January 25, 2011 to March 25, 2011,  June 16, 2011 to August 16, 2011, and  April 11, 2012 to June 11, 2012.  This appears a nonsense, designed to protect Olympic medals, and, if the suspensions are upheld by the IAAF and WADA, the suspensions will almost certainly become continuous.

As it stands, it appears that up to five World Championship medals may be stripped from these athletes, while, currently, the Olympic medals do not appear to be affected.  The IAAF has been notified by the Russian federation and, it is likely, given such a systemic doping culture, that severe sanctions may be imposed.  Wider investigation and further analysis of stored test samples are likely to be carried out, so the "ring-fencing" of the Olympic may be breached as well.

Interview by the Irish Examiner, Olive had this to say "“It all happened so quickly,” said Loughnane. “In the space of lunchtime I went from having a silver medal to hopefully having gold." "“I don’t know how it’s going to pan out now but the reality of it is the Russians have come out and said she was dirty in that race so I was the fastest on the day. It doesn’t matter what they can’t take that away from me.”

Irishman Nick Davis, IAAF Director of Communications, said "The usual procedure according to IAAF Rules is to wait for the fully reasoned explanation (in English) for the sanctions that were announced in the Russian media as a written document from our Member Federation in Russia,” “Only at that stage are we then able to analyse and decide if we accept, or if we reject.”

The IAAF have said it is too early to comment fully on the results.