FISA, the International Rowing Federation, announced today that three rowers from the Russian national team were found to have committed illegal performance-enhancing practices during the 2007 World Rowing Championships last summer. The three oarsmen, Alexander Litvintchev, Evgeny Luzyanin and Ivan Podshivalov, all rowed on Russia’s men’s eight. This case follows a similar announcement made last summer when two members of Russia’s men’s lightweight double and one member of Russia’s women’s eight were suspended. The verdict of all six cases come after DNA analysis showed a match between the athlete’s blood and blood found on intravenous infusion paraphernalia discovered in the trash by a resident outside the team’s hotel in Lucerne. FISA cited difficulty in “obtaining blood samples from all members of the Russian team,” and the “time needed for matching DNA analyses” as the cause of the delay.

Unlike the doping at the 2007 Tour de France, where five riders were dismissed amid controversy for consuming illegal substances, all six cases of doping by Russian rowers involved an illegal practice: intravenous infusion. This is more commonly known as being on an “I.V. drip” or “intermittent infusion,” and is used to reduce dehydration, reverse electrolyte imbalance, deliver medicine, or for blood transfusion. In this case, the substance delivered via I.V. was Esofosfina, a fructose substance produced by BioMedica Inc. While the Russian team claimed that “acute dehydration and convulsions” were the reason behind the use of I.V. infusion, the FISA Anti-Doping Hearing Panel concluded that this reason was not legitimate and that the team’s hotel room in Lucerne was certainly not “an appropriate medical setting.”

As a result of FISA’s decision, all six rowers are banned from international competition until August 27th 2009. Furthermore, the Russian men’s eight lost its qualification to the Olympic games in Beijing later this summer. That qualifying spot was given to Australia, the next highest finisher. The United States’ men’s eight also qualified for the Olympics in the same race in Munich, finishing one place and 0.34 seconds ahead of the Russian eight. The remaining five rowers and coxswain of the Russian men’s eight are still allowed to race, and the Russian team can still qualify the eight in the single remaining spot at the Rowing World Cup in Poznan, Poland in June 2008.

While some feel that the two-year ban on the involved rowers, disqualification of boats and a permanent scar on the Russian team’s reputation is enough of a punishment, some feel that the multiple offenses merit greater penalties to curtail further doping and prevent the problems that plagued last year’s Tour de France from entering the rowing world. Share your opinion on the matter on the new Exeter Crew forums!

Photo from Row2k. Additional information from WorldRowing Results Database and the Doping Panel’s Official Statement.

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