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Russian national volleyball team’s ex-player gets 18-month ban over cocaine use

Pavel Moroz' suspension term enters into force on November 12, 2018

© VC Dinamo-LO press service

MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/. Pavel Moroz, a former player of the Russian national volleyball team, has been slapped with an 18-month suspension over violations of anti-doping rules, the press office of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) announced on Tuesday.

The suspension term of the 32-year-old athlete, who played for the Russian national volleyball team between 2012 and 2015, enters into force on November 12, 2018.

"Pavel Moroz has been disqualified for 18 months for violating provision 2.1 of the All-Russia Anti-Doping Rules and the decision comes into force starting November 12, 2018," RUSADA stated in a press release.

"The penalty is imposed over the consumption of stimulators, which do not belong to special S6a medications," the statement continued. "The doping sample of the athlete tested positive for banned substance cocaine."

The news of Moroz’s suspension were reported earlier in the day to TASS by athlete’s agent Dmitry Rezvanov, who also stated that the 18-month disqualification of the volleyball player officially starts on November 12 last year.

Besides playing 22 matches for the Russian national team in 2012-2015, Moroz also played for Russian volleyball clubs Kuzbass Novosibirsk (2010-2013); Ural (2016-2017); Fakel (2017-2018); Dinamo-LO (2018) and for South Korea’s club Incheon Air Jumbos (2015-2016).

Moroz is the silver medal winner of the 2013-2014 Russian Volleyball Championship, and two-time vice champion of the Russia Cup (2011 and 2014).

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency added in its statement on Tuesday that it imposed suspensions against other Russian athletes for violations of anti-doping regulations - namely against cycling racer Tatyana Panina, 49, (6-month disqualification), cross-country skier Sergei Korsakov (4-year disqualification) and Pavel Metelev, 18, from the Russian basketball club Yenisei Krasnoyarsk (3-month disqualification).

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