Bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva was one of two Russian athletes to test positive at Pyeongchang 2018 ©Getty Images

Russian Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA) head Vladimir Uiba has blamed negligence for bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva testing positive for a banned substance at Pyeongchang 2018 after claiming they had tried to prevent her from competing at the Winter Olympic Games.

According to reports in the Russian media, the FMBA prepared a document which warned Sergeeva should not participate at the Games owing to a heart problem.

The report was not passed on to the Russian Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (RBSF) leadership nor the team doctors, it is claimed, allowing Sergeeva to be part of the Olympic Athletes from Russia team at Pyeongchang 2018.

The 30-year-old, whose 12th place result in the two-woman bobsleigh event, where she had been the pilot with partner Anastasia Kocherzhova, was annulled following the failed test, tested positive for trimetazidine, a stimulant usually used to treat patients suffering from angina.

A recommendation made by the FMBA in December of last year cleared Sergeeva to compete.

A subsequent follow-up examination of the athlete the following month, howeer, returned a different verdict, which Uiba claimed never reached the RBSF.

Russian officials claim Nadezhda Sergeeva, right, should not have competed at Pyeongchang 2018 owing to a heart condition but she was not stopped due to a administrative mix-up ©Getty Images
Russian officials claim Nadezhda Sergeeva, right, should not have competed at Pyeongchang 2018 owing to a heart condition but she was not stopped due to a administrative mix-up ©Getty Images

Uiba added that "organisational fecklessness" was responsible for Sergeeva's failed test as her mother, who is also a doctor, gave her an unapproved medicine which contained the banned substance.

Sergeeva was one of two OAR competitors to fail a drugs test at Pyeongchang 2018.

Curler Aleksandr Krushelnitckii had earlier tested positive for meldonium, a substance believed to have similar effects to trimetazidine.

Krushelnitckii was stripped of the Olympic mixed doubles curling bronze medal he won with wife Anastasia Bryzgalova by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) anti-doping Ad Hoc division.

The Norwegian team of Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten were then upgraded to bronze and received their medals during a special ceremony at the Games.

Krushelnitckii is now appealing against the decision at CAS in Lausanne.