Champion from Adygeia refuses to take part in Beijing Olympics

Sergei Alifirenko, Olympic champion in rapid pistol fire from Adygeia, is not going to take part in the Olympic Games due to problems with his eyes.

"Three weeks before the trip to China, an eye disease was revealed ", stated Oleg Lapkin, main coach of the Russian national team in shooting. According to the Adygeia state TV and radio company, European champion Leonid Ekimov is going to replace him in the national team.

Daria Pischalnikova from Adygeia competing in track-and-field is among the five leading Russian track-and-field sportsmen debarred from the Olympic Games in Beijing. The decision has been passed by the International Track-and-field Association which referred to the mismatch of the DNA in the last-year doping tests of the sportswomen. The supervisory agency representatives suspect that the blood tests were substituted. Pischalnikova won a silver medal at the last year track-and-field world championship in Japan.

Five sportsmen from Adygeia are to take part in the Russian Olympic team (487 members). These are Sergei Alifirenko, Olympic champion in pistol shooting, disabled shooter Valeri Ponomarenko, Bogdan Pischalnokov, Daria's brother (also in discus throwing), and Yana Uskova, handball player.