Russian canoeists banned for being in state doping program

By GRAHAM DUNBAR
AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — Three Russian canoeists including a gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics have been banned or being part of the state-backed doping program eight years ago. The Court of Arbitration for Sport said its judges upheld appeals filed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after the International Canoe Federation refused to prosecute individual cases. The three athletes include Aleksandr Dyachenko who took gold in K2 200-meter sprint at London. Dyachenko is banned for four years for using steroids in 2014. The prosecutions using evidence from the Moscow testing laboratory shuttered in 2015 when the state doping program was detailed.