Russia gets off lightly coming into biathlon season

It's damn cold outside, so the best thing about that weather is that biathlon season must be starting soon! If you haven't read my blog in previous European winters, you'll have missed how excited I get about betting on this sport, particularly trading in-running on Betfair. It is a brilliant sport once you understand how the format works.

Anyway, Russia had five competitors caught for doping last season, including three top 10 biathletes, and the International Biathlon Union (which can't be too harsh against them as Russia is the biggest nation in the sport) has handed out a rather lame $68,000 fine to the national body. Hardly a massive penalty given how endemic in the system it had become, and their past history...

Biathlon union fines Russia $68,000 for doping

BERLIN (AP)—The International Biathlon Union has fined Russia $68,000 for a series of doping violations.

The IBU sanctioned the Russian national federation Monday after five of its athletes were caught doping over the past year.

The IBU can fine national bodies if more than one athlete breaks doping rules in a 12-month period.

Yekaterina Iourieva, Albina Akhatova, Dimitri Yaroshenko, Andrei Prokunin and Veronika Timofeyeva all received doping suspensions.

The IBU says the Russian federation “has imposed all necessary disciplinary consequences” and taken other steps to prevent doping by its athletes in the future.

The first World Cup race weekend will be live on Eurosport in the first week of December. With no Winter Olympics this season, working out which competitors are primed early and which ones are aiming to peak later in the season shouldn't be an issue.

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Sport is made for betting

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