The Russian men's quadruple sculls team has been banned from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics for doping, the World Rowing Federation announced Thursday.
The team was disqualified after a urine sample given by rower Sergei Fedorovtsev tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine on May 17,
The Associated Press reported.
The New Zealand team will replace the Russian team in Rio.
Fedorovtsev, 36, won a gold medal in quadruple sculls at the 2004 Olympics.
Trimetazidine is a banned metabolic modulator typically used to treat the heart condition angina pectoris,
Reuters reported.
"We are hugely disappointed that our athletes found themselves competing against cheats however very pleased ... they have achieved their goal of winning a spot at the Olympic Games in Rio," said RNZ chief executive Simon Peterson.
The sculls team joins Russia's track and field team in being banned for doping, and Russian weightlifting athletes face a possible one-year suspension pending the retesting of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, the AP said. The country's swimmers also are being investigated, according to Reuters.
A total of 67 Russian athletes have launched appeals of their bans with the Court of Arbitration for Sport,
the BBC reported.
The International Association of Athletics Federations passed the "exceptional eligibility" criteria, allowing individual athletes to apply for an exemption to the ban.
A three-person review board will consider such things as "contact an athlete has had with coaches, officials, doctors and support personnel in his or her national federation; intelligence, investigations and results management of the athlete; whether that athlete has samples in storage that could be re-tested; the amount of in-competition and out-of-competition testing the athlete has been subject to; and how the quality of the testing the athlete has been subject to compares to that of his or her international competitors during the same period,"
USA Today reported.
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