Liliya Shobukhova

RUSWomen

Liliya Bulatovna Shobukhova (Волкова); born 13 November 1977 is a retired Russian long-distance runner who competed in marathon races. She previously specialized in the 3000 and 5000 metres track events. She served a doping ban until 23 August 2015. Shobukhova started her career in middle-distance running in 2001 and reached the final at both the European Indoor Championships and European Athletics Championships in 2002.

She moved on to longer distances and, two years later, she represented Russia at the 2004 Athens Olympics and reached the 5000 m final. She ran at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, but her first major successes came the following year when she won silver medals at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships and the 2006 European Athletics Championships. Shobukhova began to compete in road races, winning the 2007 Prague Half Marathon, but she still reached the 5000 m final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. After running in the 10,000 metres at the 2009 World Championships, she focused on road races full-time.

The move paid dividends for her as she won at the Chicago Marathon three times straight from 2009 to 2011, as well as the 2010 London Marathon. Her former personal best time of 2:18:20 hours was the Russian record for the event and made her the second fastest woman ever after Paula Radcliffe until it and all her other race results since 9 October 2009 were annulled following an adverse finding of biological passport abnormalities indicative of drug use. She is a former world indoor record in the 3000 m and a former European record holder in the 3000 m and 5000 m.