An illegible urine sample taken from Russian athlete Olga Yegorova in July and meant to confirm a positive test for the banned drug EPO may have been tampered with, France's sports daily reported on Friday. L'equipe, without citing sources, said the Russian representative present for the tests, Nikolai Durmanov, may have been left alone with the samples while they were being prepared.
“He behaved very strangely during the testing procedure, quickly lost interest and left Paris for the world championships at Edmonton on August 1, before the tests were concluded, the paper said. The French sports ministry on Friday received a report from the testing laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry, west of Paris. The ministry said it would have no comment before studying the report, unlikely before next week.
Yegorova tested positive for EPO during the golden league competition in Paris on July 6. She was initially suspended by the international association of athletics federations but was allowed to run after the IAAF cited procedural flaws in the testing. Bureau Report