3 athletes sanctioned for failed drug tests at Rio Games

Bulgarian runner Silvia Danekova has tested positive for banned blood booster EPO at the Rio Olympics.

“Unfortunately, we have a positive test”, its Secretary General Belcho Goranov told Bulgarian reporters, reports Efe.

European champion weightlifter Tomasz Zielinksi and Bulgarian 3,000m steeplechase runner Silvia Danekova were the first definitive exclusions ordered by a special anti-doping division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Rio, it said in a statement.

Danekova, 33, was tested on July 30 immediately upon her arrival in the Olympic Village and was found positive for the performance boosting eryrhropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA), which stimulates red blood cell production.

Olympic hosts Brazil have also been criticised by WADA after halting its drug testing programme during the build-up to Rio 2016.

Danekova, who raced in the heats of the 3000 metre steeplechase at London 2012, protested her innocence in an interview with Bulgarian television on Friday.

Danekova has been temporarily suspended pending the test of her B sample. Four tests were done, three of them were negative. “It’s an incredibly big shock”. I feel robbed emotionally.

“We take note of the decision of the Kenyan Olympic Committee to send home its athletics coach following a violation of anti-doping rules and we thank the NOC for its swift action”, said an IOC spokeswoman.

Sprinters Tezdzhan Naimova and Inna Eftimova, middle-distance runners Daniela Yordanova, Vanya Stambolova and Teodora Kolarova, high jumper Venelina Veneva and hammer thrower Andrian Andreev have all tested positive in the last decade.

Seven Russian swimmers have been allowed to compete in Rio after initially being banned following allegations of a huge, state-sponsored doping operation in their homeland.

“The shock for me is unbelievable”, she added. “We clean our bathrooms with buckets”.