Biathlon World Cup series: Czechs announce doping-triggered Russia boycott

The Czech Republic will boycott the biathlon World Cup series in Tyumen next March over the Russian doping scandal, federation chief Jiri Hamza announced on Wednesday. The Czechs' absence follows a call for a mass boycott from France's Olympic champion Martin Fourcade.
"I can't imagine that it will take place, for the simple reason that biathletes won't be going there," Hamza told Czech newspaper Dnes's online site. "Certainly the Czechs won't be there, we've already agreed on that," he added. The Czechs, Fourcade and other top biathlon competitors are furious after the International Biathlon Union (IBU) said 31 suspicious Russian cases had been raised in the latest report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
They want their ruling body to take decisive action against Russia. "It's time for one of the federations to speak out loud and clear what has up to now only been said in private," declared Hamza. The March 9-12 World Cup event is due to be held in the same Russian resort of Tyumen as the 2021 world championships, which Hamza wants moved to another venue. In October, Fourcade called for a mass boycott if the IBU showed leniency towards doping-tainted Russian biathletes. "It's not like it's only one or two. It's 31 added to the 12 we had over the few past years in biathlon," he said at the time.