AP - An online campaign led by three-time Australian Olympic medallist Jared Tallent has led to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) beginning an investigation into the country's dominant walking team after the banning of several athletes.
RUSADA said on Friday it had opened "a preliminary investigation into possible breaches of anti-doping rules in relation to athletes' staff" because of "multiple disqualifications of athletes".
RUSADA requested biological passport data on athletes from the IAAF.
The move follows a Tallent-led campaign against Russian coach Viktor Chegin, who the Australian says has overseen 17 of his athletes banned for doping.
The latest was reigning Olympic 20km champion Elena Lashmanova, who was suspended for two years last month after testing positive for banned substance GW1516.
Lashmanova was also the world champion and 20km world record holder.
Anti-doping authorities last year warned athletes against taking GW1516 after it was found to rapidly cause multiple cancers in rats.
Among prominent Russian walkers to have been banned was men's 20km world record holder Vladimir Kanaykin, who was one of five Russian walkers to receive two-year bans for failing drug tests shortly before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He has since returned to competition.
Another of those five, Sergei Morozov, was banned for life in 2012 for a second doping violation, but was allegedly pictured serving on the Russian team's staff at the World Race-Walking Cup in May.
Last month, IAAF vice president Sergei Bubka said on Twitter that it was "looking into" claims of malpractice in the Russian team following Tallent's campaign, and that the IAAF race-walking committee "raised strong concern".
Bubka, the pole vault great, said he would raise the issue when the IAAF council met in Eugene, Oregon, during the world junior athletics championships this month.
Tallent claimed the bronze medal in the 20km walk at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, then - a week later - won silver in the 50km event.
At the 2012 London Olympics, Tallent finished seventh in the 20km, but won silver again in the 50km in a personal best time of 3:36:53.
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