Two Russian cross country skiers get new ban

Five day suspension handed out due to high hemoglobin levels

TURIN, Feb 17 - Two Russian cross country skiers who had recorded high red blood cell levels were handed another five-day race suspension after tests showed continued abnormally high levels, the International Skiing Federation said on Friday.

Russians Natalia Matveeva and Nikolai Pankratov were banned for five days last week for the same reason.

A Russian anti-doping official said both instances had nothing to do with doping.

“Matveeva has a very small increase in levels of hemoglobin but she will most likely run in her distance because she runs late,” said Nikolai Durmanov, head of the anti-doping inspection at the Russian Olympic Committee.

“We’ve taken her from the mountains to the city so that her hemoglobin levels can fall,” he told Reuters.

She is due to compete in the sprint on Feb. 22.

He said Pankratov also has a very small increase in red blood cell levels, but “these are the rules”. He was due to compete on Friday in the cross-country skiing 15-km classical.

“There is no connection with doping at all,” he said.

The FIS considers the ban a health precaution and not a sanction, saying it is designed to protect the athlete.

A total of 12 cross-country skiers tested positive at the start of the Games and received five-day suspensions to reduce their levels of hemoglobin. Several of them were allowed to race following re-testing some five days later.

Reuters Limited