Bobsleigh pilot returns positive test

A second Russian athlete competing at the Winter Olympics has tested positive for a banned drug.

The Russian Bobsleigh Federation (RBF) yesterday announced women’s pilot Nadezhda Sergeeva had tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidince.

Her violation follows that of Alexander Krushelnitsky, who on Thursday was stripped of the mixed doubles curling bronze medal he won with his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova.

The RBF reported on its Facebook page that Sergeeva who, along with her brakewoman Anastasia Kocherzhova, finished 12th in the women’s two-person bobsleigh, tested positive on 18 February, two days before their event, having returned a clean sample on 13 February. “The medical staff of the national team did not prescribe the drug to the sportswoman,” said the RBF.