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Biathlon official says early to blame Russian biathletes doping use

International Biathlon Union has temporarily suspended three biathletes from sports competitions following their positive doping test results

© ITAR-TASS/Valery Sharifulin

YEKATERINBURG, January 29. /ITAR-TASS/. A member of the Russian Biathlon Union’s managing board said on Wednesday it was too early to accuse Russian biathletes of failing doping tests.

Germany’s DPA news agency and other European media reported earlier that three biathletes were tested positive for doping in late December. Reports did not disclose the names of the athletes only stating that they are of both sexes and come from Russia and Lithuania.

Sergei Chepikov, who is also a two-time Olympic champion, said in an interview with Itar-Tass that Russian athletes can be blamed for using doping only if the second test sample proves to be positive.

“The fact of taking doping can be confirmed only after both A and B samples turn out to be positive,” Chepikov said commenting on media reports.

According to reports, the biathletes failed the doping test following results of the A-sample and the athletes still had to be tested for the B-sample. However, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) temporarily suspended them from sports competitions.

It is also unknown whether the biathletes were on the roster of their national teams for the upcoming 2014 Olympic Games in Russia’s resort city of Sochi, but the IBU already notified the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of the incident.

The Russian Biathlon Union will hold on Wednesday an extraordinary session of the anti-doping committee to form a special commission on the investigation of the doping incident.

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