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UCI confirms positive test for Russian keirin rider Baranova

  • By VeloNews.com
  • Published Aug. 3, 2012

LONDON (AFP) — The UCI has confirmed that Russian track cyclist Victoria Baranova was prevented from traveling to the London Olympics after being suspended over a positive doping test. Russian outlet R-Sport first reported Baranova’s positive control, based on an unnamed source, on Friday.

Baranova, a 22-year-old who was set to compete at the Olympic Velodrome, tested positive for the male hormone testosterone in a random control in July. She confessed to the offense on Friday.

“I’ve bought the pills containing testosterone in a drugstore and took just one of them,” Baranova told the RIA-Novosti news agency. “I knew it was forbidden and didn’t tell my coach anything about it. In the
evening came the doping control officers and took my sample for testing. I was afraid and was feeling myself really sorry but kept silent about my fault.”

Baranova added she had never taken any banned drugs before and was sorry about her conduct.

A spokesman from the UCI told AFP the positive test was a result of cooperation between the UCI and the International Olympic Committee to weed out cheats.

“The UCI carried out a raft of extra tests prior to the Olympic Games, as well as the IOC,” the UCI spokesman said. “Our combined efforts have made it a lot harder for cheats to dope and get away with it.”

Baranova is the first cyclist from the Olympics to be implicated in a doping affair.

Her best individual result at the world championships was eighth in the match sprint in 2010. At the last world championships in Melbourne in April, she finished 19th.

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