Her health suffered in the winter months during this period, however, and her lack of training time hindered her performance in her early career.

[1] She finished fifth at the 2005 Summer Universiade and took part in the 2007 World Championships without reaching the final.

[3] On 25 November 2016 the IOC disqualified her from both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games and struck her results from the record for failing a drugs test in a re-analysis of her doping samples from 2008 and 2012.

[5] She gave birth to a daughter, Arina Menkova, in September that year and she vowed to return to top form in 2011.

She equalled this feat at the Olympic Champions meeting in Minsk two months later,[7] then improved to 78.69 m in July, moving up to second of all time behind Betty Heidler.