Group seeks ban of Russian teams

A global group of antidoping leaders is calling for Russian teams to be excluded from international competitions while establishing a process to allow individuals from the country to compete if they can prove they have taken part in effective antidoping programs elsewhere.

Leaders from 19 national antidoping organizations, including those in the United States, Britain and Sweden, held a summit this week and released their recommendations Tuesday.

They also call for removal of major international competitions from Russia, a process that already has begun in the wake of Part 2 of the McLaren doping report, which was released last month.

The McLaren report detailed state involvement in a widespread doping conspiracy that touched almost every corner of international sports. The details included a cover-up involving 12 medalists from the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Skiing: Defending World Cup slalom champion Frida Hansdotter of Sweden was at her best in Flachau, Austria, convincingly winning the last race in the discipline before next month’s world championships.

After failing to reach the podium this season, Hansdotter placed third in Maribor, Slovenia, on Sunday, then won the night race two days later. Hansdotter finished 0.58 of a second ahead of Nina Loeseth of Norway. Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin shared third place with Wendy Holdener of Switzerland, 0.78 off the lead.

Shiffrin extended her lead in both the slalom and the overall standings. In the discipline, she leads Veronika Velez Zuzulova of Slovakia by 125 points. For the overall title, the American leads defending champion Lara Gut by 365 points. Soccer: Manchester United closed in on the final of the English League Cup by beating injury-hit Hull 2-0 in the first leg of their semifinal. The second leg is Jan. 26. Liverpool plays Southampton in the other semifinal, starting Wednesday. Horse racing: Trainer Ron Ellis has been banned from entering any horses in the Breeders’ Cup in the fall after being sanctioned by the event for a positive drug test involving Masochistic, who finished second in last year’s BC Sprint. Tennis: Defending champion Robert Bautista-Agut of Spain has withdrawn from the ASB Tennis Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, without playing a match, citing a stomach virus.

Top-seed Bautista-Agut, 28, was due to play 2015 champion Jiri Vesely on Wednesday. He is ranked 13th.