Athletics: The IAAF has provisionally suspended seven Russian athletes for doping offences.
Five of the seven - distance runners Yelena Soboleva, Tatyana Tomashova and Yulia Fomenko along with Darya Pishchalnikova (discus) and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva (hammer) - were due to compete at the Olympics in Beijing.
The other two athletes are Svetlana Cherkasova (800m) and Olga Yegorova (1500m/5000m).
The seven have been charged under IAAF rules 32.2 (b) and 32.2 (e) for a "fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process", according to a statement from the world governing body.
The statement continued: "These rule violations were established following the deliberate storage of samples by the IAAF and re-analysis using comparative DNA techniques, and were the result of a specific investigation which was instigated and carried out by the IAAF for more than a year.
"The IAAF will make no further comment until a final decision has been taken by the ARAF (All Russia Athletics Federation), which now takes over the responsibility to adjudicate these cases."
The athletes have up to 14 days to request a hearing with the national member federation. If a hearing is requested, it must be held within a period of two months.