The president of the Russian Rowing Federation, Veniamin But faced the media in Moscow on Tuesday (26th July) after rowers Ivan Balandin, Ivan Podshivalov and Anastasia Karabelshchikova were excluded from Russia's team for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

"It's team sport so when (Anastasia) Karabelschikova is banned it's impossible to replace her, and in this case eight people are suspended automatically. (Ivan) Podshivalov and (Ivan) Balandin are banned, it's impossible to replace them, it means at least four people (are suspended). So on the whole it's fifteen… We lost the eight and probably the coxless four, so on the whole it's twelve people."

"One (athlete) got his doping test missing. They should find out why it's missing. The other violated the rules of drug application. It should have been consumed orally and he was given an injection, which is prohibited in principle. So he violated (the rules), I don't say that he didn't do that. So, only the third athlete actually tested positive for a banned drug."