Doping agency collects 3,000 blood samples from Russian athletes

Doping agency collects 3,000 blood samples from Russian athletes

Thursday, December 25, 2014 12:41 pm


Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s Sports Minister on Thursday, said that 3,000 samples had been taken from athletes by officials investigating allegations of widespread doping in the country.

“Inside Games,” an online news portal, reported that there had been claims pertaining to the allegations, aired earlier this month in a documentary by German broadcaster ARD.

Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia, a shot put competitor once stripped of medals for drugs

Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia, a shot put competitor once stripped of medals for drugs

“Now, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is taking steps to establish the validity of the allegations”.

The portal said that the minister had confirmed that a WADA commission and its Director of Science, Olivier Rabin, had visited the country at his request.

“The investigating officials took around 3,000 samples to be checked in laboratories.

“I wrote a letter to WADA, that we were open to receiving any commission and ready to show everything.

“A commission from WADA has visited us and we will continue to work with them,” it quoted Mutko as saying.

It said WADA had announced that its former President, Richard Pound, would head the special commission looking into the doping claims starting from Jan. 1.

However, it said that Valentin Balakhnichev, the President of Russia’s Athletics Federation, had denied the allegations.

Since then, Balakhnichev has also stepped down from his role as International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) treasurer while the allegations are being investigated.

Vladimir Kazarin, Russian National Coach, also said that he would sue the makers of the German documentary, who linked him with the alleged systematic doping programme.

The portal stated that the coach was a main offender in the documentary but he said he would sue the programme-maker for the false allegation.

”I did not give anyone banned substances, it is a really strange situation,” it quoted the coach as saying.


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