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Two Russian cyclists and a national team water polo player have tested positive for low levels of meldonium

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THREE MORE RUSSIANS TEST POSITIVE FOR MELDONIUM

MAR 31, 2016 | ANDY BROWN | 

Two Russian cyclists and a national team water polo player have tested positive for low levels of meldonium, but argue that they stopped taking the prohibited substance before the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List came into effect on 1 January 2016. The Russian cycling federation is investigating after Anastasia Chulkova and Pavel Yakushevsky reported positive tests for ‘low levels’ of meldonium. Chulkova took gold in the points race at the 2012 Melbourne Track World Championships, and Yakushevsky took bronze in the team sprint at the 2013 European Track Championships.

‘According to the data we now have, the content of the substance in the doping samples is low, but we can say there are residual traces of meldonium’, read a Russian cycling federation statement. ‘We will hold an internal investigation. According to statements made by athletes, they stopped using drugs containing meldonium immediately after a message about its new status as a banned substance in the autumn of 2015.’

Alexey Bugaychuk, who competed for the Russian water polo team at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, tested positive for meldonium at the Men’s European Water Polo Championships in Belgrade on 18 January, reports Tass. A spokesperson told the news agency that Bugaychuk had stopped taking meldonium in October.

As previously reported (see below) by the Sports Integrity Initiative, it appears that many Russian athletes were advised that meldonium would clear the body in about two weeks, however it is now understood to be detectable for much longer. This creates an ethical dilemma for anti-doping organisations – can they prosecute athletes for testing positive for a substance if they stopped taking it before it was banned? It is understood that this will form part of the defence of many of the accused athletes.

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http://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/three-more-russians-test-positive-for-meldonium/

MAR 21, 2016 | ANDY BROWN | 

The Russian athletics federation (RusAF) confirmed this morning that four of its athletes have tested positive for meldonium at the Russian Winter Championships, which took place in Moscow from 23 to 25 February. RusAF said that it was satisfied with the preparations it had carried out regarding the introduction of the 2016 Prohibited List, on which meldonium was included. ‘The federation has repeatedly warned athletes, coaches and support staff that meldonium (mildronate) is included on the Prohibited List’, it said in a statement. ‘This was reported several times on the official website of the federation since October 2015’.

However, Andrey Minzhulin – who has also tested positive for meldonium – told Russian website RSport that the Prohibited List was not translated into Russian until October 2015. It was initially thought that meldonium had a half-life of between three to six hours in the body, meaning that Minzhulin was advised that it should be undetectable after two weeks. It is now understood to be detectable for 100 days. He claimed that this has led many athletes who stopped taking the drug before the Prohibited List was introduced to test positive for it in 2016.

If the List was not translated into Russian until October 2015 and an athlete then stopped taking meldonium, is it then fair to sanction them for testing positive in 2016, if they took meldonium when it was not prohibited? Although the World Anti-Doping Code is built on the strict liability principle, it appears that Minzhulin’s comments could form the basis of a legal argument for many athletes who have tested positive in such a manner.

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