MOSCOW — The International Biathlon Union has suspended three Russian biathletes for two years each after finding them guilty of anti-doping rule violations.

Albina Akhatova, Yekaterina Iourieva and Dmitri Yaroshenko tested positive for the banned substance rEPO during a World Cup event last December in Ostersund, Sweden.
The ruling was handed down by an independent anti-doping panel consisting of international experts in judicial and medical anti-doping matters, the IBU said in a statement published on its Web site on Tuesday.
Follow-up tests confirmed the positive results and the athletes were barred from the biathlon world championships in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Feb. 13-22.
The panel’s decision means that all three biathletes are ruled out of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and under new International Olympic Committee rules, will not be eligible for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
The bans were dated from Dec. 3, 2008, for Yaroshenko, Dec. 4 for Iourieva and Dec. 5 for Akhatova.
The athletes have the right to appeal the decisions to IBU’s Court of Arbitration or directly to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if agreed upon by the athlete and the IBU. An appeal must be filed within 21 days from the receipt of the ruling.