The Belarus athletics federation (BFLA) has suspended race-walker Anna Drabenya, after she tested positive for trimetazidine. Often sold under the brand name Vastarel MR, trimetazidine is a metabolic modulator used to treat angina prohibited under Section S4 of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) 2016 Prohibited List. Drabenya, who won the 20km walk at the 2014 Belarus Race Walking Cup, will be banned for two years from 11 April 2015 until 27 April 2017, read a BFLA statement.

Meanwhile, hammer thrower Vadim Devyatovskiy (pictured, centre), who is currently head of the BFLA, has won his battle to avoid a lifetime ban, after a retest of a sample he gave in 2005 came back positive, reports the Associated Press. Devyatovskiy had already served a two-year ban for doping, which ended in 2002. In 2010, he also overturned a 2008 International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision to strip him of his Beijing 2008 Olympic gold medal after a successful appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ruled that the Beijing laboratory had interfered with the samples, annulling the test results.

“WADA felt there were good grounds for appealing against the decision of the Belarus Federation and the IAAF fully supported its doing so,” a spokesperson for the  International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) told InsideTheGames. “The IAAF notes the decision of the CAS Panel to exonerate Mr Vadim Devyatovskiy and respects the decision as being final and binding.”

Sebastian Coe, IAAF President, (IAAF) recently met with the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, at the European Athletics CEO Conference in Minsk. In a statement, Lukashenko outlined that Belarus is keen to host international athletics events from 2017 onwards.