Kazakhstan's double Winter Universiade gold medallist Galina Vishnevskaya has had a provisional suspension lifted by CAS ©Getty Images

Galina Vishnevskaya has had a provisional suspension imposed by the International Biathlon Union (IBU) lifted with immediate effect by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) having been initially sanctioned as part of criminal doping investigations in Austria and Italy.

Her compatriot Darya Klimina-Ussanova has failed to have her provisional suspension lifted.

The IBU revealed no reasoning has yet been given by CAS for their decision to lift Vishnevskaya's suspension.

Vishnevskaya will now be able to compete in IBU events again.

Vishnevskaya is a double Winter Universiade gold medallist, winning mass start and sprint titles at Almaty 2017 in front of a home crowd.

She also earned two silver medals, adding to one claimed at the 2015 event at Osrblie in Slovakia.

The nine suspensions involving members of Kazakhstan's team were imposed by the IBU in November.

The IBU confirmed at the time the provisional suspensions were linked to investigations being carried out in Austria and Italy.

Asian Games gold medallists Olga Poltoranina and Yan Savitsky were among those suspended, along with Alina Raikova, who earned a gold medal at the 2015 Winter Universiade.

Anton Pantov, a double Winter Universiade medallist, Maxim Braun, Anna Kistanova and Vassiliy Potkorytov were the other athletes implicated.

Darya Klimina-Ussanova, right, has failed in her attempt to have a provisional suspension lifted ©Getty Images
Darya Klimina-Ussanova, right, has failed in her attempt to have a provisional suspension lifted ©Getty Images

The suspensions marked the latest development in the ongoing situation concerning the Kazakhstan biathlon team.

Kazakhstan's biathlon team doctor Khossilbek Tagayev was provisionally suspended in March after the Italian police found banned substance prednisolone in his hotel room.

It came during searches of the accommodation of Kazakhstan's biathlon team during a World Cup event in Antholz in South Tyrol in January, conducted by the Italian police.

The raid was directly linked to the probe conducted by Austrian authorities at the Hochfilzen World Championships, where several medical products were seized and 10 athletes were detained. 

Later, the Kazakh athletes implicated took tests to check for doping but they all produced negative results.

The previous month, in East Tyrol, suspicion had loomed over the Kazakh team after a local resident reported seeing passengers in several minibuses disposing of large cardboard boxes at a petrol station.

The police recovered them and it was discovered the boxes contained disposable materials such as syringes and ampoules for injections. 

There were also handwritten notes indicative of doping offences. 

The boxes also contained various accreditations for IBU events and were transferred to the Anti-Doping Agency of Austria.

Analysis found documents and records which showed that the contents of the boxes belonged to the national team of Kazakhstan.

The World Anti-Doping Agency are also investigating and have met with Olle Dahlin, elected IBU President in September.