Three Russian athletes may face bans
Published 28 December, 2007, 19:59
Three Russian female athletes could be in hot water after missing a drug's test. Olesya Bufalova, Tatyana Veshkurova, a European Gold and Silver Medalist, as well as middle distance runner Svetlana Cherkasova were at a Portuguese disco when the officials arrived at their training camp.
As the athletes weren't present, the test could be automatically classed as positive but Russia's head coach, Valentine Maslakov, says the accusations are groundless.
“When doping officers come through some athletes may not be around and there’s nothing wrong with that. The doping officers should technically wait for the absent athletes for 12 hours. In this case it was Saturday night and some athletes were attending to their personal business. I don’t know why such a small issue has become subject of so much discussion,” he said.
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