Four Russian Athletes Test Positive for Meldonium

Four Russian athletes have tested positive for banned substance meldonium, the Russian athletics federation boss, Dmitry Shlyakhtin revealed on Monday.

Among the 4 track and field athletes is  Nadezhda Kotlyarova who won 100m silver at the European Championships indoor in 2013. Other athletes include Russian indoor 5,000 champ Andrey Minzhulin, World University Games 10K silver medalist Gulshat Fazletdinova and steepler Olga Vovk.

WADA banned meldonium on January 1st, 2016 and since then at least 16 Russian athletes have failed drugs test for the substance including Tennis star Maria Sharapova. 

The drugs inventor says it is hard to improve endurance with meldonium; WADA says that meldonium boosts athlete's endurance. 

According to Grindex, the meldonium manufacturer, the substance may stay in athletes body for several months.  

Last month another star athlete Abeba Aregawi, the 2013 1500m world champion, and several Ethiopian top runners tested positive for meldonium.

Russian track and field was suspended from international competition last year in November after discoveries of widespread doping and corruption in Russian Athletics.