Sapporo: Suspended athletes cleared to compete

By Published On: February 26th, 2007Comments Off on Sapporo: Suspended athletes cleared to compete

The International Ski Federation announced Monday that six athletes given five-day suspensions at the Nordic World Championships because of high hemoglobin levels have been cleared to compete after undergoing further testing.

SAPPORO, Japan — The International Ski Federation announced Monday that six athletes given five-day suspensions at the Nordic World Championships because of high hemoglobin levels have been cleared to compete after undergoing further testing.
    The high hemoglobin levels were detected in pre-competition blood testing. The six athletes were suspended from competition for the first five days of the event but can return to competition beginning Tuesday, the federation said.
    The six athletes are Russians Voronin Konstantin and Dmitry Matveev and Italian Jochen Strobl in Nordic combined, along with cross-country skiers Alen Abramovic of Croatia, Sergei Dolidovich of Belarus and Reto Burgermeister of Switzerland.
    The suspensions were not a punishment and were served to protect the health of the athletes, the federation said.
    Three other athletes who received suspensions have not been retested but will undergo tests over the next few days, the federation said.

    — The Associated Press   

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