Four suspended on suspicion of doping

OBERHOF, Germany - Four Nordic skiers, including world championship runner-up Maxim Vylegzhanin, have been suspended on suspicion of taking banned substances, International Ski Federation official Juerg Capol said on Saturday.

Capol said the suspensions came after the four showed unusually high levels of hemoglobin in their samples.

Along with Vylegzhanin, currently fourth in the world standings, Slovakia’s Martin Bajcicak and Estonians Kein Einaste and Algo Karp have been banned from the Tour de Ski circuit for five days.

Capol told the German sports news agency SID, an AFP subsidiary, that three of the four had previously shown higher-than-usual readings and there did not appear to be any genetic explanation.

The four racers were banned from Friday’s Tour de Ski prologue event at Oberhof, Germany, and will also miss the weekend races at Oberstdorf.

AFP