Russian sports minister downplays threat of new doping cases

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Sports Minister says an archive of doping data recently handed over to sports federations may not result in any more new cases.

The World Anti-Doping Agency retrieved the data in January from the Moscow drug-testing lab and spent months analyzing it before handing files to federations in the summer.

It’s already resulted in 12 new cases in weightlifting, and track and field authorities are analyzing their files in the run-up to the world championships.

However, minister Pavel Kolobkov tells the Tass state news agency that “if some breaches are detected, there will be an investigation and someone will possibly be banned, and maybe not, but I think that the peak, the most difficult phase (of pressure on Russia over doping) has passed.”