Russia’s suspension was official as of Friday. “This has been a shameful wake-up call and we are clear that cheating at any level will not be tolerated”.
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Of 23 eligible council members, 22 voted in favour of the sanction with one voting against.
The IAAF is reeling from the aftermath of a major doping scandal that has led to Russia’s provisional suspension from all competition following a WADA report that uncovered evidence of state-controlled doping in the country.
Russian athletes may take part ONLY in local competitions organized in Russia.
World champion hurdler Sergei Shubenkov – the 25-year-old son of prominent Soviet heptathlete Natalya Shubenkova – deplored he could relive his mother’s exclusion from the 1984 Los Angeles Games, which the Soviet Union boycotted.
The report alleged that the laboratory destroyed samples despite being told by WADA to preserve them, and that staff took bribes from athletes or their coaches in exchange for covering up positive tests.
However, allowing an outlawed national team to compete under their Olympic flag to get around a doping ban would be unprecedented, but that is what has been proposed by Russia’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko.
“We had to withhold some information relating to the global athletics federation because of the possibility that if we disclosed it it would jeopardize ongoing criminal enquiries that are being conducted by the French police”. But let’s do this together.
“The interesting thing will be to see if the stakeholders, both public and sport, are happy if we begin to take a slightly tougher view on compliance”, Reedie said.
“After consultation with WADA, we will set the verification criteria”, said IAAF president Seb Coe. “This problem does not exist only in Russian Federation, but if our foreign colleagues have questions, we must answer them”.
“I don’t know about any specific functions so far but the main task will be to defend the athletes’ rights and to represent them, resolve particular issues, create and improve conditions for training”, the pole vault queen said.
Pound suggested that his report only scratched the surface and the shocking revelations were only the “tip of the iceberg” alluding to wider corruption outside of Russian athletics.
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“I’m honoured to have been asked by Sebastian Coe to head the verification process”, said Andersen.
