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Russian Bobsledder Agrees To Eight-Month Ban After Positive Drug Test


Russian bobsled pilot Nadezhda Sergeyeva
Russian bobsled pilot Nadezhda Sergeyeva

One of the four doping cases at the Pyeongchang Olympics has been closed in an agreement between bobsled's governing body and Russian driver Nadezhda Sergeyeva.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said on October 12 that it accepted a settlement that ended the case with an eight-month ban for Sergeyeva. The ban started provisionally during the February Olympics and expires on October 22.

All parties agreed that a contaminated product was to blame for her positive test for trimetazidine in South Korea in February, the court said.

Sergeyeva was disqualified from her 12th-place finish in the two-woman bobsled event.

The International Olympic Committee agreed to allow 168 Russians deemed drug-free to take part at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang under a neutral flag. However, two of them returned positive tests during the event.

The other Russian who tested positive was Russian curler Aleksandr Krushelnitsky. He was stripped of his mixed doubles bronze medal for taking the banned substance meldonium.

Japanese short-track skater Kei Saito and Slovenian ice-hockey player Zuga Jeglic also failed doping tests at the Winter Games.

Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and AFP

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