The recently banned endurance-boosting drug meldonium is responsible for a new wave of failed doping tests this year by Russian athletes, including Maria Sharapova.
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All are said to have tested positive for the drug at the Russian indoor championships last month.
On Friday, the World Anti-Doping Agency said there had been 102 failed tests for meldonium this year, though only a small fraction of athletes’ names have so far been made public.
In addition to Sharapova and Efimova, at least four track and field athletes have tested positive (according to Fortune.com), a speed skater (again, per Fortune) and a bobsledder (according to ESPN).
The country’s Olympic wrestling team has reported “tens” of doping cases that could keep its athletes out of the August Rio games, reported the Associated Press.
Dmitry Shlyakhtin, head of the All-Russia Athletic Federation, said the latest positive tests will not “aggravate” that “complex” decision.
Both Russian experts and Latvian firm Grindex, the medication producer, pointed out that the effects of this drug can remain within the body for several months.
The IAAF did not respond to a request for comment on Kotlyarova’s case.
“No one told us how long this drug remains in the body”.
Meldonium is particularly popular in Russian Federation and the former Soviet Union, however, having been invented in Latvia and used to help Soviet soldiers fight at high altitude in the 1980s.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko also claimed the positive tests in Russian athletics were not related to preparations for the Olympics. “The information has also been published on the official website of the Federation”, R-Sport, a sports division of RIA Novosti news agency, quoted Salnikov as saying.
Russia’s national coach is the 1980 Moscow Olympic champion Ezio Gamba, who represented Italy at four successive Summer Games.
“The testing plans are completely clear”.
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“There is no reason (not to), they have legally qualified”, he said, adding that all the medallists were tested at the Las Vegas competition.
