Canadian biathlon team to boycott competitions in Russia
The Canadian biathlon team has written a letter to the President of the International Biathlon Union (IBU), Anders Besseberg, informing the Union that the athletes intend to boycott the IBU World Cup in Tyumen, Russia, reported the Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
The reasoning for the boycott is the refusal of the IBU to punish the Russian team for numerous violations of anti-doping regulations discovered by the International Olympic Committee.
"The occurrence of high-level IBU events in Russia is inconsistent with the IOC decision of 05 December to disallow participation by the Russian Team in the PyeongChang Olympics; [and] the integrity of anti-doping procedures in Russia is still very uncertain…for these specific reasons, Biathlon Canada will not be sending teams to the events in Russia later this season,” the letter states.
Russia had planned to replace the doping test of Ukrainian biathlete Vita Semerenko at the Sochi Olympics.
In December of last year, the British Biathlon Union (BBU) also announced a boycott of the World Cup in Tyumen. In addition, Norwegian and Czech athletes have also announced their intention not to attend competitions in Russia.
Russia has also been deprived of the right to host the World Biathlon Championships in 2021.