Efimova doping case not closed

LAUSANNE, May 22, (AFP): Swimming governing body FINA insisted Sunday that it would pursue a doping inquiry against Russia’s world champion swimmer Yulia Efimova despite lifting her suspension.

“This case is not closed,” FINA said as it confirmed that the suspension of the world 100m breakstroke champion had been lifted following advice from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

FINA’s doping panel is to meet on May 30 to consider the case of the 24-year-old Efimova, who tested positive for meldonium in March.

That means the case will not go straight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as some observers had predicted.

FINA issued a statement after some coaches expressed dismay at the lifting of Efimova’s suspension. Russia’s national team coach Sergei Kolmogorov said this was a sign that “everything is moving in the right direction.”

podium both in Rio de Janeiro — where he placed in 5th — and here in Munich, today.

At the following 10m Air Rifle Women final, it was the 2015 European Games champion Andrea Arsovic of Serbia, 29, who finished atop of the podium. The Serbian athlete scored 208.5 points, climbing the scoreboard up to the lead with a great series of 10s, and leaving behind her the winner of the 2015 Pan American Games Goretti Alejandra Zumaya Flores of Mexico (18), who took today’s silver with 207.9 points (an equaled junior final world record). Shi Mengyao of the People’s Republic of China (18) — at her first appearance in an international competition — joined her and Zumaya Flores on the podium, collecting bronze with 186.7 points.

Winners on the podium