The World Anti-Doping Agency said on Friday that it recorded 99 positive tests "for the recently-banned drug at the center of the case involving five-times grand slam tennis champion Maria Sharapova," according to Frank Pingue of REUTERS.
WADA "did not name the athletes who tested positive for meldonium," which has been linked to increased athletic performance, but said they came from different sports and were reported by many national anti-doping organizations.
WADA spokesperson Ben Nichols said in an email, "We can confirm that since 1 January 2016 when the substance Meldonium became banned, there have been 99 adverse analytical findings for Meldonium recorded" (REUTERS, 3/11).
CRITICAL CARE: In London, Martyn Ziegler wrote the IAAF announced that five countries other than Russia are in “critical care” over their drug-testing systems. IAAF President Sebastian Coe said, "Ethiopia and Morocco both need to implement adequate and robust testing in and out of competition. Kenya, Ukraine and Belarus have been put on a monitoring list for 2016 to strengthen their anti-doping regimes and make sure their journey to compliance is completed by the end of the year. There are no immediate sanctions. It is just a wake-up call. Sanctions will only be considered if they don’t comply with requirements" (LONDON TIMES, 3/12).
IN RUSSIA: REUTERS' Dmitry Solovyov wrote Russia has said there are "political overtones" in the decision by WADA to ban meldonium use, and that it will investigate whether positive tests among its sports stars could have been "provocations."
Russian Deputy PM Arkady Dvorkovich said that law enforcers "were already investigating how meldonium had got into the bodies of Russian skaters." He said that each case would be examined to establish whether competitors were to blame or "provocation by unknown persons" (REUTERS, 3/12). In a separate article, Solovyov wrote World Rugby said that two Russia national rugby sevens players "suspended from all competition for taking the banned substance meldonium are Alexey Mikhaltsov and Alena Mikhaltsov." Alena and her husband Alexey "play for Yenisei-STM club based in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk."
Alena Mikhaltsov dismissed the meldonium scandal which has hit Russia's sport as "politically motivated" (REUTERS, 3/12).
NGENY QUITS: REUTERS' Isaack Omulo wrote the Kenyan athletes' representative, Noah Ngeny, "has quit his post, saying that the country's sporting authorities were not doing enough to tackle a doping crisis." Ngeny, the 1,500m champion at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said, "Athletics Kenya has ignored my advice to spend money in sensitizing athletes on matters of doping. I find that unacceptable." He said that sponsors "have withdrawn their support and questioned AK's spending practices" (REUTERS, 3/13).
