MOSCOW: European indoor silver medallist Olesya Syreva has been banned for two years for breaking anti-doping regulations, the Russian athletics federation (VFLA) said on Sunday.

The 29-year-old middle-distance runner had shown an “abnormal haemoglobin profile in her biological passport”, the VFLA said on its website.

Marathon runner Mikhail Lemaev, who finished 45th in the men’s marathon at the 2009 world championships in Berlin, was also given a two-year ban for the same offence, the VFLA said.

Syreva’s ban began on Friday and all her results since March 3, 2011 had been annulled, the VFLA added.

The Russian, who finished behind Britain’s Helen Clitheroe in the women’s 3,000 metres at the European indoor championships in Paris in March 2011, will now lose her medal.

In December, 2012 Olympic discus silver medallist Darya Pishchalnikova and Russian hammer champion Kirill Ikonnikov, who finished fifth at the London Games, were temporarily suspended.