6 track athletes handed doping bans after Olympic retests

MONACO (AP) Six Russian and Ukrainian track athletes were handed doping bans Wednesday after retests found they had doped at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

The IAAF said Russian sprinter Yulia Chermoshanskaya, who won 4x100-meter relay gold in 2008, was banned for two years. Two Ukrainians, javelin silver medalist Oleksandr Pyatnytsya and pole vault bronze medalist Denys Yurchenko, were also banned for two years.

They had already been stripped of their Olympic medals last year by the International Olympic Committee.

There were also two-year bans for Ukrainian athletes Vita Palamar, Marharyta Tverdohlib and Maksym Mazuryk, who competed at the Olympics but were not medalists.

The IAAF also announced an eight-year sanction for Natalia Lupu, who was the 800-meter European indoor champion in 2013.

The IAAF said the Ukrainian failed a test in July, her second offense, so she could be disqualified from last year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she reached the semifinals of the 800.