Biathlon body suspends Russian for suspected doping
Ekaterina Glazyrina of Russia was suspended on suspicion of doping by the International Biathlon Union, hours before she was to race at the world championships on Friday.
Glazyrina was suspended based on a report by World AntiDoping Agency investigator Richard McLaren. He accused the national anti-doping agency, known as RUSADA, and a drugtesting lab of covering up hundreds of failed tests.
The IBU said "several samples of the athlete may have contained prohibited substances, and doping controls conducted by RUSADA may have been tampered (with)."
The 29-year-old Glazyrina was to compete in the sprint race, and was replaced by teammate Irina Uslugina.
Glazyrina raced but did not win a medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where Russian officials are accused of swapping drug test samples.
Her suspension comes in a difficult week for the IBU, which was pressured by athletes into holding a congress to discuss toughening doping penalties. Following that, the IBU board said it plans to take the 2021 world championships away from Russia.
Separately, Austrian police raided the Kazakhstan team's hotel late Wednesday and seized medical equipment and drugs as part of an investigation into possible breaches of anti-doping law.
Bjorn Kircheisen wins Nordic Combined event in Japan
Bjorn Kircheisen of Germany edged local favorite Akito Watabe to win a Nordic combined World Cup event on Friday.
Kircheisen had jumps of 132.5 meters for 125.3 points to finish fourth in the jumping portion and started the 10-kilometer race with a 42-second deficit.
The German got the favorable position on the inside of the curve on the final stretch and beat Watabe by 0.7 seconds to claim the 17th title of his career.
Kircheisen moved into fifth place in the overall standings with 640 points. Overall leader Rydzek Johannes of Germany did not take part in Friday's competition.
Mikko Kokslien of Norway placed third, finishing 32.1 seconds behind the winner. Jakob Lange of Germany was a careerbest fourth while Tim Hug of Switzerland was fifth.