Moscow, July 3 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The Russian Athletics Federation announced Tuesday it has handed two-year bans to runners Svetlana Klyuka, Nailya Yulamanova and Yevgenia Zinurova for tampering with urine samples.

Klyuka, 33, came fourth in the 800 metres at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Yulamanova, 31, won marathon gold at the 2010 European championships in Barcelona, while Zinurova won the 800 metres at the 2011 European indoor championships in Paris.

The bans for Klyuka and Zinurova are applied from February 10, with all of their results since August 2009 annulled, the federation said on its website.

Zinurova's ban is back dated to September, with her results from March 2010 struck off.

Seven Russian athletes including world indoor 1,500 meter champion Yelena Soboleva were banned in 2008 under the same article of the International Athletic Associations Federation rule of tampering with doping control.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

Update: 03-July-2012