Russian bobsleigh pilot Nadezhda Sergeeva has been disqualified from the Winter Olympics after admitting to an anti-doping rule violation.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport’s anti-doping division announced her expulsion, saying Sergeeva had tested positive for heart drug trimetazidine.
Her anti-doping rule violation follows that of Alexander Krushelnitsky, who on Thursday was stripped of the mixed doubles curling bronze medal he won with his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova.
Sergeeva and her brakewoman Anastasia Kocherzhova finished 12th in the women’s two-person bobsleigh which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, but their results have now been expunged from the record.
A CAS ADD statement read: “The athlete has admitted the anti-doping rule violation; she is disqualified from the women’s bobsleigh event at the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018 and the results obtained by the team OAR Sergeeva/Kocherzhova at the same event are disqualified.
“The athlete has accepted a provisional suspension beyond the period of the Games and reserved her ‘rights to seek the elimination or reduction of the ineligibility period’ following the conclusion of the Games.”
.Sergeeva’s expulsion could jeopardise the chances of Russian athletes, who are competing Pyeongchang as Olympic Athletes of Russia (OAR), being permitted to march under their own flag in Sunday’s closing ceremony.
The International Olympic Committee suspended the Russian Olympic Committee for systemic doping at the Sochi 2014 Olympics.
The OAR athletes are competing under the Olympic flag in Pyeongchang and the Olympic anthem is being played at any medal ceremonies they feature in.
The IOC’s executive board was due to have made a decision on whether to lift, or partially lift, the Russian ban ahead of the closing ceremony but it was widely reported on Saturday that the decision has been delayed until Sunday, when the IOC session takes place.
– PA
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
