Four-times world medallist Natalya Lobova is one of three Russian canoe athletes suspended by the International Testing Agency ©Getty Images

Four-times world medallist and 2011 European champion Natalya Lobova is among three Russian canoe athletes suspended by the International Testing Agency (ITA).

Lobova, 36, and her colleagues Larisa Arakcheeva and Vitaly Yurchenko - who has won one European and two world medals - are suspected of anti-doping rule violations based on data from the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory (LIMS), TASS, the official Russian news agency, reports.

Illegal steroids were reported to have been found in samples taken from athletes in 2013 and 2014.

Lobova earned world silver medals in the K1 4x200 metres event in 2011 and 2014, and bronze medals in 2010 and 2013.

She won the European title in the K1 200m in 2011, and bronze four years later in the K-4 500m.

Illegal steroids were reported to have been found in samples taken from athletes in 2013 and 2014 ©Getty Images
Illegal steroids were reported to have been found in samples taken from athletes in 2013 and 2014 ©Getty Images

Yurchenko, 34, won world bronzes in 2011 in the K2 1,000m and in 2013 in the K4 1,000m.

He also won European silver in the K2 1,000m in 2011.

Arakcheeva, 28, was fifth in the women’s C2 under-23 200m at the 2015 International Canoe Federation's Sprint World Championships at Montemor-o-Velho in Portugal.

In 2012, she won gold in the 500m C2 at the European Flat Water Junior Championships.

LIMS recorded the actions related to the results of testing athletes for doping for the period from 2012 to 2015.

In January 2019, the data was transferred to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), but the latter organisation said it had been manipulated in order to hide doping violations.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed WADA’s assertion, but only partially agreed with the package of sanctions imposed by the anti-doping agency on Russian sports, which remained in effect until December 2022.