ANALYSIS Russia's joy over first gold shattered by another doping case By John Bagratuni, dpa

Another Russian doping case - this time involving a bobsledder - has rocked the Pyeongchang Olympics, souring the Russian mood over their first gold. It has unknown consequences for their bid to march at the closing ceremony under their own flag.Pyeongchang, South Korea (dpa) - Russia was in the midst of celebrating the first gold of the Pyeongchang Games for its team of neutral athletes when the next doping bombshell dropped on Friday.With just over 12 hours before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was to decide whether to lift the doping-related suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, women‘s bobsleigh team member Nadezhda Sergeeva was revealed to have failed a test at the Games.The latest shock came the day after Russia‘s mixed doubles curling team was stripped of its bronze medal because Alexandr Krushelnitckii had tested positive for the banned heart medication meldonium.And it soured the mood which had been ecstatic just hours earlier after 15-year-old figure skater Alina Zagitova got the team‘s first gold at last on the 14th day of competition ahead of compatriot Evgenia Medvedeva. "Excellent performance of our figure skaters in Pyeongchang, and the first gold! Alina Zagitova, Evgenia Medvedeva, my congratulations! We are proud of you!" Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tweeted.Medvedeva said after her silver win that even if the Russians were unable to parade with their flag "people know where we are from and the spectators proved that." And cross-country skier Yulia Belorukova had already stated on the first weekend of the Games that "nothing will break us or instil fear. We will fight until the end."But Medvedev probably soon switched into damage control mode as the Russian side must now fear that latest doping case could sway the mood of the IOC.Over the past days - and despite the Krushelnitckii test - IOC members had seemed ready to allow the OAR athletes to march under their own flag again in Sunday‘s closer, either in a full or at least partial lifting of the December sanctions for state-sponsored doping practices in the country and at the 2014 Sochi Games.After all, Russia had been in somewhat of an appeasement mode over the past days, after earlier exhausting all legal means in the past months over its sanctioned athletes.Krushelnitckii waived his right for a hearing and was swiftly flown home after returning the medal. Russia had also paid the 15-million dollar fine which was another part of the IOC punishment. And IOC president Thomas Bach had met - albeit briefly - with Igor Levitin, an aide of Russia President Vladimir Putin. Bach had called the doping schemes "an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport," and the IOC allowed only clean Russians to South Korea while barring hundreds of others and disqualifying more than 40 for the Sochi practices.There was a certain irony that Sergeeva‘s case was announced by the Russian bobsleigh federation president Alexander Zhubkov, for the two-time Sochi gold medallist is among those punished by the IOC for doping offences and banned from Pyeongchang.To make matters worse, Sergeeva is a repeat offender after two years ago testing positive for meldonium, a heart medication banned in 2016 and used by a large number of Russian athletes, including tennis star Maria Sharapova who served a ban as a result.She was now caught using trimetazidine, a metabolic agent usually used to treat angina pectoris, according to her federation. The TASS news agency quoted a bobsleigh federation statement as saying that it as well as the athlete, who failed a test on February 18, realize the responsibility and "understand how this may affect the team."Sergeeva finished 12th and will not lose a medal, but the case will further shatter the image of the 168-strong team competing as Olympic Athlete from Russia - and now possibly endanger the desired reinstatement, to be decided by an IOC implementation group and the executive board.