Moscow (AFP)
Russian athletics star Sergey Shubenkov said Thursday he had "never" doped, denying information released the day before by Russian media that he had tested positive for a diuretic.
"Throughout my career, I have never used prohibited substances, I have never cheated on anyone", wrote the 2015 world champion and 2017 and 2019 vice-world champion in the 110 m hurdles on his account Instagram.
Several Russian media reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources, that Shubenkov, one of the Russian athletes allowed to compete under a neutral banner at the Tokyo Olympics, had tested positive for furosemide, a masking agent banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency ( AMA).
"It is an impudent lie invented by a + source + without a name!", Reacted Thursday the screaming, deploring that the media hastened to diffuse it "without even checking where it came from".
He added that he had recently received a letter from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), an independent structure that deals with doping issues in athletics.
But this "confidential" letter has nothing to do with a suspension, assured the 30-year-old athlete whose name did not appear Thursday on the list of suspended athletes, available on the IAU website.
Involved for years in a vast scandal of repeated cheating, Russia was excluded in December for two years from major international competitions by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which halved the duration of the suspension which had been set at four years by WADA in December 2019.
However, Russian athletes can compete under a neutral banner if they have never been convicted of doping.
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