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Ukrainian Olympic bobsleigher tests positive for steroids

Ukraine's Lidiia Hunko steering her monobob down the Olympic track. ©AFP

Yanqing (China) (AFP) - Ukrainian bobsleigher Lidiia Hunko has tested positive for an anabolic steroid at the Beijing Olympic Games, the International Testing Agency (ITA) said on Thursday. 

The ITA said in a statement that a sample taken on February 14 in Yanqing, site of the bobsleigh track, had contained dehydrochloromethyl-testosterone. 

Hunko, 28, has been provisionally suspended. 

She had finished 20th in monobob, a new event in the Olympic programme. 

It was the third positive test at the Games and the second by a Ukrainian.

On Wednesday, the ITA announced that the Ukrainian cross-country skier Valentyna Kaminska had tested positive to several prohibited substances, including mesterol, another anabolic steroid. 

Iranian skier Hossein Saveh Shemshaki was suspended on February 9 for the duration of the Games because an anabolic steroid appeared in an out-of-competition test taken on February 7 in Beijing.

The second week of the Games has been dominated by the doping case of star figure skater Kamila Valieva, but her positive test was on a sample taken at the Russian Championships in December

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that she could continue to skate in the Olympics.

On Thursday the 15-year-old Russian fell several times in her free skate to drop to fourth in the final results. 

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