MOSCOW, March 25 (R-Sport) – Six arm wrestlers, including four national medalists, have failed doping tests at this month's Russian national championships, the country's anti-doping watchdog Rusada said Tuesday.
The grapplers, identified by name in the last two days, have all been given provisional bans from further competitions pending a final ruling, Rusada said in a series of statements on its website.
Three silver and one bronze medalist from this month's Russian championships are among those who have failed the tests, Rusada said.
The four medalists are Nikolai Kolesnichenko and Dzambolat Musaev, who won silver and bronze in the 100kg category, 90kg silver medalist Abdul Eldarov and 85kg silver medalist Gadzhimagomed Musaev.
The championships, held earlier this month outside Moscow, saw over 300 male and female wrestlers face off, with the winner in each weight category being the competitor who scored best overall in separate events for the left and right arms.
As arm wrestling has become a professional sport around the world in recent years, Russia has flexed its muscles in elite competitions, winning nearly a third of the events at last year's world championships in Poland.
