The Russian skier, sprint specialist Natalia Matvejeva has been caught using doping. The urine sample which Matvejeva gave in Whistler last January has been found to contain EPO hormone.

Erythropoietin (EPO) hormone increases the production and concentration of red blood cells and haemoglobin in the blood. This leads to increased aerobic endurance. Too high epo levels are a health risk and can lead to blood clotting, heart attack and stroke.

This year Natalia Matvejeva has placed second on the sprint competition in Düsseldorf. In the Whister she placed seventh. The Russia Ski Federation has placed her a temporary prohibition of competition until the B sample is analyzed on 24th March.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Doping, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.