More than 100 athletes from what was originally a 387-strong team have been barred from competing in Rio by worldwide sports federations under sanctions that most Russian athletes consider unfair.
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In doing so, the federation pointed to the multiple cases of doping by the country’s weightlifters. It said the punishment was an “appropriate sanction” to “preserve the status of the sport”.
Sports reported that Russia’s eight weightlifting spots will offered to other countries.
To replace the eight Russian lifters in Rio, five countries were offered places in the men’s competition – Belarus, Croatia, El Salvador, Mongolia and Serbia. Because of the lateness of the decision, the IWF said it was not clear whether all the spots would be filled. Three already barred athletes were mentioned in the now infamous July 18 report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) independent commission chaired by Canadian Professor Richard McLaren on doping and test manipulation allegations against Russian Federation.
Kipchoge Keino, chairman of the National Olympics Committee of Kenya, said they have sensitized the team and done monitoring of their performances and training and is certain, they will have no problems in Rio as the world congregates in the Brazilian city for the games starting on August 5. “They’re training and they’re ready to go”.
The Moscow tournament, which was announced by Russian state news agency TASS, will feature banned athletes including Olympic high jump champion Ivan Ukhov and world 110 metres hurdles champion Sergey Shubenkov.
“Unfortunately they didn’t make an exception for me”, she wrote on Instagram.
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“We have the most tested bunch of athletes and they have passed each stage of testing placed before them. The miracle didn’t happen”.
