JAPANESE SKATER FAILS DOPE TEST

Japanese short-track speedskater Kei Saito has tested positive for a banned diuretic in the first doping case of the Pyeongchang Olympics. Saito, a reserve on the 5,000m relay team, tested positive for acetalozamide, which can be used to treat conditions such as glaucoma and altitude sickness but can also be a masking agent to disguise the use of other banned substances.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced the case Tuesday, saying Saito “accepted on a voluntary basis to be provisionally suspended and to leave the Olympic Village.” Saito did not race in any event before the test result from a pre-competition sample was confirmed. CAS said its judging panel handling Olympic doping cases will issue a final verdict after the games are over. Muffat-Jeandet took bronze behind compatriot Alexis Pinturault and Austrian champion Marcel Hirscher to give France their first medals in the event since Henri Oreiller won gold and James Couttet bronze in 1948. While Pintu rault had been one of the favourites at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre, the chances of Muffat-Jeandet landing a medal had looked dead and buried when he recorded the 29th fastest time in the downhill run. “I was really disappointed and angry with my downhill run,” he told reporters. “In skiing, you have to do two full runs and with guys like Pinturault and Hirscher, if you do one bad run, it’s not enough for the podium.” Second out in the slalom as a consequence, the 28-year-old judged his run on the icy slope perfectly and crossed the line in 46.97 seconds, only a hundredth of a second outside the time Hirscher clocked for gold. “For me it was still not enough,” he said. “There was still Marcel, still Alexis, and some downhillers who are quite good in slalom.

“It was a long wait, guys after guys. In the end everyone was telling me ‘okay, it’s going to be okay’, and I was like ‘No way, there’s still three or four guys’.