ZCZC
BSP-14
ATHLETICS-WORLD-DOPING-RUS-OLY-2020
World Athletics to rule on Russia ahead of Olympics
MONACO, March 12, 2020 (AFP) – World Athletics is to decide Thursday
whether to start the procedure of reinstating the new-look Russian athletics
federation, as well as initiating the process to allow Russian athletes who
test clean to compete under a neutral banner at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Russia has been suspended by World Athletics (then known as the IAAF)
since 2015 over repeated doping scandals — a ban upheld 12 times — and has
been fighting for readmission.
The last report by World Athletics’ Task Force, in November, led to its
decision-making Council suspending the process of reinstating RUSAF over
charges against its officials that they obstructed an anti-doping
investigation.
The Council also put a freeze on the system of allowing Russian athletes
to compete as “Authorised Neutral Athletes”.
Those decisions prompted wholesale change at RUSAF, which has a newly-
appointed head in Yevgeny Yurchenko.
In one of his first conciliatory moves in the stand-off, Yurchenko sent
two letters to World Athletics, the first “concerning our cooperation and in
regard to scandalous situations, which had left an impact on our relations
for many years”.
Yurchenko said he had agreed with accusations made by the Athletics
Integrity Unit (AIU) against RUSAF on the wrongdoings in the case of high
jumper Danil Lysenko, in which “forged documents and false explanations” were
provided as an alibi to his whereabouts, as required by anti-doping rules.
In January, the AIU, the independent anti-doping watchdog for track and
field, recommended World Athletics maintain the exclusion of RUSAF and the
freeze on Russian athletes competing under a neutral flag unless it failed to
provide evidence in the Lysenko case, which had proved to be a tipping point.
– Negative consequences –
Yurchenko, who also apologised for the negative consequences from the
Lysenko case, said his second letter was sent to World Athletics chief
Sebastian Coe.
Coe, Yurchenko said, “will initiate the process of issuing to Russian
athletes neutral status permits for their participation in international
tournaments”, with RUSAF’s membership reinstatement with World Athletics “set
to be launched”.
That promises to be good news for three-time high-jump world champion
Mariya Lasitskene, who has been vocal in her criticism of the former RUSAF
regime for its handling of the scandal.
Lasitskene, pole vault world champion Angelica Sidorova and men’s 110m
metres hurdles star Sergey Shubenkov held a meeting with Coe last week,
reportedly on relaunching the so-called “ANA scheme”, which allows eligible
Russian athletes to compete as neutrals at events.
Moscow’s case has been made more complicated after the World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA) in December imposed a four-year ban from all international
sporting competitions on Russia over what it considers a state-sponsored
programme of doping, a suspension the country took to the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
CAS, the world’s highest sporting court, will now have to decide whether
to confirm the WADA ban, or listen to Russia’s case against the sanction. A
ruling is not expected before May, with the Tokyo Olympics scheduled to start
on July 24, in just 134 days.
The International Olympic Committee said CAS had to make a clear-cut
decision, with no room for “any kind of interpretation”, over whether Russia
was to be banned not just from Tokyo, but also the 2022 Winter Olympics in
Beijing and the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar.
In Monaco, the World Athletics council will also discuss the effects of
the spread of the coronavirus, with several members, including those from
outbreak hotspots China and Italy, taking part remotely by teleconference
because of travel restrictions in their countries.
The COVID-19 outbreak has already caused the world indoor championships in
Nanjing, China, due to be held this month, to be delayed by a year, and the
world half-marathon champs in Gdynia, Poland, to be re-scheduled from March
29 to October 17.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1612HRS