Yelena Soboleva

Who is Yelena Soboleva?

Yelena Vladimirovna Soboleva is a Russian middle distance runner who specializes in the 1500 metres.

In February 2008 she established a new world indoor record of 3:58.05 seconds in a race in Moscow, and in March 2008 she beat her own world record in Valencia. She won a silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow.

During the Russian Indoor meeting in Moscow in January 2008, she set a new national record in the women’s Mile with a time of 4:20.21, which was the third fastest of all-time. She also holds the national indoor record for 800 m, set in Moscow during the 2008 season.

Soboleva was selected to represent Russia in both the 800 m and 1500 m at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but was suspended from competition, after the discovery of doping test irregularities. She and four her teammates were charged in substitution of their urine tests after competitions last year. There were no charges in using of doping but they were suspended.

On 20 October 2008, it was announced that Soboleva, along with 6 other Russian athletes would receive two-year doping bans for manipulating drug samples. The ban would come into effect from April 2007, when the samples were given for testing.