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Russian swimmer to appeal Rio ban

Moscow - Russian Yulia Efimova, who has been banned from competing at next month's Rio Olympics by swimming's governing body FINA, will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), her agent said Monday.

"We've taken the decision to appeal to CAS. The opponent will be the International Olympic Committee, FINA and the Russian Olympic Committee," Efimova's agent Andrei Mitkov told R-Sport.

FINA on Monday banned seven Russians, including 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Efimova, from competing in Rio in the fall-out from Russia's rampant state-run doping.

FINA was the first sport to impose bans in light of Sunday's IOC decision, which ruled against a blanket ban on all Russian competitors in Rio, instead leaving it up to individual sports federations to decide whether to accept Russians.

Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev, both 4x100m freestyle bronze-medal winners with the Russian team at the 2012 Olympics, and Efimova, who won bronze in the 200m breaststroke in London, were among the seven banned.

Efimova had been provisionally suspended by FINA in March after testing positive for the banned drug meldonium, which has been prohibited since January.

FINA lifted Efimova's suspension in May after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said that athletes could escape a ban because it does not know exactly how long it takes for meldonium to leave the body.

The 24-year-old is also four-time world champion in the breaststroke.

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