Russia’s track and field federation was provisionally suspended Friday by the sport’s governing body, keeping the country out of worldwide competition for an indefinite period – possibly including next year’s Olympics in Brazil.
Advertisement
“To ban innocent athletes not connected to that doping scandal from competing in global events and Olympic Games in Rio is not fair”.
“Today we have been dealing with the failure of ARAF [All-Russia Athletic Federation] and made the decision to provisionally suspend them, the toughest sanction we can apply at this time”, IAAF President Sebastian Coe said in a statement, according to the BBC.
Sky News understands he will press for the maximum penalty he can impose in the short-term – a provisional suspension – ahead of full disciplinary proceedings that could be held next month.
“But I hail the fact that they’re allowing us to express ourselves”.
As for their involvement in next year’s Olympics, Coe said the door was still open but warned Russian Federation would have to pull out all the stops to gain their place in Rio de Janeiro.
Vladimir Putin earlier this week said he wanted Russian Federation to conduct an internal investigation into the accusations and that someone needed to take personal responsibility for the problem.
Russian athletes will be able to participate in domestic competition and are still expected to comply with the IAAF’s anti-doping rules and out of competition testing.
The committee’s findings will go to the WADA foundation board, which will vote on it at its meeting next Wednesday. The athletes could then miss the indoor season, including the world indoor championships in Portland, Oregon, from March 17-20.
“This is a great move by the Cabinet, prior to this we had discussed about doping and criminalizing it through the National Assembly, this will show that Kenya values athletics and her athletes”, said Jack Tuwei, Athletics Kenya vice president.
ARD further alleged that a third of medals (146, including 55 golds) in endurance events at the Olympics and World Championships between 2001 and 2012 were won by athletes who have recorded suspicious tests but none of these athletes have been stripped of their medals.
Yesterday Rooney, the highest-profile current athlete to speak out, said: “It is pretty disrespectful to believe the vice-president did not know what was going on within IAAF”.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), whose 323-page report brought to light state-sponsored doping practices, welcomed the suspension.
But sports minister Vitaly Mutko said punishment should be restricted to individuals rather than the whole nation.
The report also recommended that five athletes and five coaches should be given lifetime doping bans.
VTB first deputy president Vasily Titov told the RIA Novosti news agency: “We did not plan to renew it. This has nothing to do with the doping scandal in any way”.
Advertisement
Russia’s council member at the IAAF, Mikhail Butov, says the length of his country’s ban from track and field will depend on how convincingly Russian representatives can make the case that they have reformed.
