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Winter Olympics Another Russian athlete fails a drug test at the Olympics

Nadezhda Sergeeva became the second Russian athlete competing at the Winter Olympics to test positive for a banned drug today.

The Russian Bobsleigh Federation announced women’s pilot Sergeeva had tested positive for a banned heart drug which the Olympic Athletes of Russia (OAR) confirmed was trimetazidine.

Her anti-doping rule violation follows that of Alexander Krushelnitsky, who was stripped yesterday of the mixed doubles curling bronze medal he won with his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova.

The Russian Bobsleigh Federation reported that Sergeeva tested positive on February 18, two days before the women’s bobsleigh competition in Pyeongchang, having returned a clean sample on February 13.

“The medical staff of the national team did not prescribe the drug to the sportswoman,” the Russian Bobsleigh Federation.

“The Russian Bobsleigh Federation and the athlete herself understand the extent of her responsibility and understand how the event may react to the fate of the whole team.”

Sergeeva and her brakewoman Anastasia Kocherzhova finished 12th in the women’s two-person bobsleigh which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The latest anti-doping infraction could jeopardise Russian hopes of the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) being lifted in time for tomorrow’s closing ceremony.

The ROC is under suspension by the International Olympic Committee following the systemic doping at the Sochi 2014 Olympics.

The IOC in December determined that Russian athletes who proved they were clean would be allowed to compete as neutrals in the Games, in a team named the Olympic Athletes of Russia.

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