MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Officers of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) collected a total of 217 doping samples of national biathletes between January 1 and December 15, 2018, according to the agency’s December report.

Thirty three doping tests were collected from Russian biathletes within the previous two months and the list of tested athletes increased by 12 against the number reported in mid-October. Valentina Nazarova (Teletsyna) was subjected to most doping tests (nine in total) compared to the rest of the tested biathletes.

In 2017 Russian biathletes were subjected to 311 doping tests on behalf of the RUSADA. Nikita Ovchinnikov passed 12 tests for performance enhancing drugs.

The significant number of doping tests in the previous year owed to the requirements of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which allowed participating in the 2018 Olympics athletes, who turned in a certain number of doping samples.