Champ Lizzy hits out over drug checks

LIZZY Yarnold has criticised the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation for failing to include any Russian skeleton athletes on its official list of those who must commit to regular antidoping checks for the Winter Olympic season.

The IBSF has released the names of 35 sliders selected for its Registered Testing Pool – which requires them to guarantee their whereabouts for one hour per day of the programme’s duration, via the World Anti-Doping Agency’s AntiDoping Administration and Management System (ADAMS).

Olympic champion Yarnold is one of three Britons among the 11 athletes selected from skeleton, but there are no Russians despite a culture of suspicion over the Russian sliding programme since the publication of the second McLaren report last year.

Yarnold said: “The ADAMS system is crucial in our fight against doping and I think the IBSF should expand the testing pool. But I do not understand why there are three GB athletes in the pool of 11 and no Russians, especially after the findings of the McLaren report.”

Two bobsledders, Anastasia Kocherzhova and Andrey Lylov - who compete for their nation’s respective second teams and are each yet to achieve a top 10 finish in a World Cup - are the only Russian athletes to feature on the full IBSF list.

Following the second McLaren report last year, four Russian skeleton athletes including Olympic champion Alexander Tretyakov and bronze medallist Elena Nikitina, were provisionally suspended by the IBSF but had their bans lifted in January as the governing body said there was “insufficient evidence” to continue with the suspension.

IBSF statutes maintain that any athlete may still be chosen for a random test, and investigations into the four Russian athletes are still ongoing as part of the broader probe into Russian doping involving both the IBSF and the IOC.

When contacted, the IBSF said none of its anti-doping officials were immediately available for comment.