NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Ukrainian track and field coach has been fired after eight prominent athletes were suspended within a week for failing doping tests.
Sports minister Ajay Maken announced Tuesday that Yuri Ogorodonik had been dismissed. Maken says he advised the national athletics federation to remove any other foreign coaches suspected of encouraging the use of performance-enhancing substances.
Ogorodonik coached six of the eight athletes who tested positive, all of them women’s 400-meter runners.
The list includes Asian Games double-gold medallist Ashwini Akkunji and relay teammates Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose, who won the 1,600-meters title at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games and the Guangzhou Asian Games last year.
