Five Russian race-walkers, including three Olympic gold medallists, were banned by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency on Tuesday. Bans of three years and two months were handed to Olympic champion Sergei Kirdyapkin and Olga Kaniskina, as well as 2011 world champ Sergei Bakulin. All three doping cases backdated to late 2012.

The dates mean Kirdyapkin will be eligible to defend his men’s 50-kilometre title at the 2016 Olympics. Valery Borchin, an Olympic gold medallist in 2008, was banned for eight years from October 2008 for a second doping offence, while Vladimir Kanaykin was banned for life for a repeat offence.

The bans do not affect any Olympic medals, although five world championship gold medals and a silver medal from 2009 and 2011 may be re-awarded.

The world championship results affected are Kaniskina’s 20K wins from 2009 and 2011, Borchin’s 20K wins in 2009 and 2011, and Kirdyapkin’s win in the 50K in 2009. Kanaykin could lose his world silver medal from the 20K in 2011. The bans are based on the findings from their biological passports. As well as their bans from late 2012, each of them has had results annulled for select periods of preceding years.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency general director Ramil Khabriev said in a statement that the periods of the annulled results were chosen for purely scientific reasons. “Having analyzed the profiles of the athletes’ blood, taking into account the opinion of leading invited hematology experts, a decision was taken on the annulment of results for those periods when abnormal results were detected,” he said.