January 14, 2015 (Salzburg, Austria) – The Austrian-based International Biathlon Union (IBU) has announced it will release the names of athletes whose samples tested positive for banned substances. In November, the IBU claimed it is retesting its pool of samples (SkiTrax understands this means going back at least through 2013 and perhaps earlier). Indications are that the names of many athletes will be revealed from multiple countries.

On Monday, the IBU confirmed that Ukrainian biathlete Sergei Sednev and Russian Alexander Loginov tested positive for doping according to the Norwegian news source NRK. IBU President Anders Bessberg told NRK that, “Because of new technology, we have developed new test methods that we can now test retest, and because of these tests, we found positive doping tests.”

Further details were provided in an IBU press release: “Besides the suspensions for Ekaterina Iourieva-RUS and Irina Staryk-RUS that were announced 21 December 2014, the IBU moreover provisionally suspended the athletes Alexander Loginov-RUS (as of November 25th 2014) and Serguei Sednev-UKR (as of December 15th 2014).”

“Both athletes waived the B sample analysis of the re-analyzed samples. Mr. Loginov’s re-analyzed sample was collected in Östersund (SWE) on 26 November 2013 in an Out-of-Competition test. Mr. Sednev’s re-analyzed sample was collected in Antholz (ITA) on 22 January 2013 in an Out-of-Competition test. The samples were taken by IBU.”

Sednev, who tested positive for recombinant EPO, has since retired from the sport. The 31-year-old Ukrainian finished third at the 2011 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk in the 4 × 7.5 km relay reports Wikipedia.

Loginov, 22, competed at 2014 Sochi Olympics; he has also has twice won silver at various World Cup events and won bronze once. He was ranked 20th in the 2014 IBU World Cup. SkiTrax understands that Loginov also tested positive for recombinant EPO.

We contacted the IBU for more details on any pending positive doping revelations but have not heard back as yet.

Read an article on www.nrk.no here (in Norwegian).

Read the IBU press release here.