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2000 World Figure Skating Championships March 26 - April 2, 2000 Nice, France News Release

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Today the Organizing Committee of the 2000 World Figure Skating Championships in Nice has received an official communication from the Figure Skating Federation of Russia, informing that the Pair Elena Berezhnaya / Anton Sikharulidze (RUS) will not participate in the Pairs event of these World Figure Skating Championships.

The Russian Federation will therefore take part in the Pairs event with Maria Petrova/ Alexei Tikhonov and Tatiana Totmianina/ Maxim Marinin.

The reason for the withdrawal of the entry of Elena Berezhnaya / Anton Sikharulidze is due to the fact that Elena Berezhnaya has received from the ISU a Communication for a positive test of a prohibited substance in the category of stimulants. The skater has declared that she had taken this class of banned substances inadvertently for the purpose of treating bronchitis. The control was taken at the 2000 European Figure Skating Championships in Vienna.

The Russian Federation has also informed the ISU that both they and the skater waived the right to the analysis of the B Sample as permitted by the ISU Regulation.

The ISU Council will consider the case in due course.