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2 Medals and 4 Suspensions for Russians at World Ski Championships
Russian athletes have won two medals and have been given four suspensions after four days of the Nordic World Ski Championships in Sapporo. Olga Savialova won a gold in a pursuit race on Sunday while Vasily Rochev and Nikolay Morilov secured a silver in a free style sprint on Friday.
The high level of hemoglobin barred Russia’s Dmitry Matveev and Konstantin Voronin from competing in a Nordic combined race on Thursday. The following day it happed to Olympic pursuit race champion Evgeny Dementyev and Nikolay Pankratov.
Pankratov was to be in a free style team race with Vasily Rochev. 20-year-old Nikolay Morilov had not managed to qualify the night before and was already packing to leave. After the news about the suspension of his team mates, he had to replace Pankratov. “I have never done a free style sprint with Vasily [Rochev] before,” the Russian teenager said after winning his first silver medal. “I made it to the adult’s team last summer.”
The hemoglobin issue was widely debated in the Russian team. Russian skiers and doctors lamented that Russian anti-doping officials had not been ready to admit the team’s applications for special blood tests last year that would demonstrate that some Russia skiers have naturally high levels of hemoglobin – a thing that keeps a great number of skiers from being suspended.
On Sunday, 34-year-old Olga Savialova scored her first championship win since 2003, being the first in a pursuit race. Savialova earlier said this would be her last championship after retiring.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 26, 2007
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