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Swimming says 7 Russians can’t compete in Rio

The International Handball Federation has written to the Russian Handball Federation to ask for the whereabouts of the women’s team to enable immediate drug-testing, while, boxing, gymnastics and modern pentathlon have told Press Association Sport that they are now assessing matters.

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McLaren’s investigation, based heavily on evidence from former Moscow doping lab director Grigory Rodchenkov, affirmed allegations of brazen manipulation of Russian urine samples at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, but also found that state-backed doping had involved 28 summer and winter sports from 2011 to 2015.

But the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had already banned Russian track and field athletes.

The International Judo Federation, whose honorary president is Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, said it has already tested 84 percent of the 389 athletes from 136 countries who are qualified to compete in Rio.

The IWF said no Russian weightlifter sanctioned for doping will be allowed to compete – even if they had already served their suspension – and that it is waiting for evidence from the Russian athletes entered for Rio before making its decision.

“I think in this way, we have balanced on the one hand, the desire and need for collective responsibility versus the right to individual justice of every individual athlete”, IOC President Thomas Bach said on a conference call. “This information and the decision of AIBA in respect of the athlete’s eligibility will be submitted to the International Olympic Committee for confirmation in due course”.

FINA is the first worldwide sports federation to ban any Russian athletes since the global Olympic Committee’s controversial decision on Sunday to leave the issue of Russian eligibility up to each sport. The FINA Doping Control Review Board will conduct a review and issue a recommendation in respect to whether Russian athletes were subject to a reliable anti-doping scrutiny, for a decision to be made by the FINA Executive.

Asked whether the International Olympic Committee was being soft on Russia, Bach said: “Read the decision”.

“In this way we are protecting the clean athletes because of the high criteria we set”.

Tygart expressed dismay at the decision to bar Stepanova, describing it as “incomprehensible” and saying it “will undoubtedly deter whistleblowers in the future from coming forward”. Gymnastics was not mentioned in the McLaren report.

Sunday’s measures are still a blow to Russian Federation, which finished third in total medals at the 2012 Olympics.

The other swimmers listed were: Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Natalia Lovtcova, Anastasia Krapivina and Daria Ustinova. All three have previously served doping bans.

FINA stated there is no indication in the McLaren report that athletes of the Russian Synchronized Swimming Federation, Russian Diving Federation and Russian Water Polo would be implicated.

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Russia’s top Olympic official, Alexander Zhukov, told Russian agency R-Sport that he now believed a total of 13 Russians would be ineligible due to previous doping bans.

Ivan Vodopyanov  TASS