IAAF votes to keep Russia banned from Rio

IOC meeting next week to decide dispensation for clean athletes

World athletics’ governing body decided on Friday to maintain its doping ban on all Russian athletes, Russia’s athletics federation said, leaving the country’s hopes of competing in the Rio Olympic Games dependent on Olympic chiefs giving special dispensation at a meeting next week.

The Council of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was meeting in Vienna to decide whether to lift the ban after hearing from a task force that significant doping problems still existed in Russia.

The TASS news agency quoted a spokesperson for Russia’s athletics federation as saying the IAAF Council had decided not to lift Russia’s suspension.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Russia would definitely react to the decision, TASS reported.

The initial ban, in November, came after a report by an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed widespread state-sponsored doping.

A task force led by Norwegian Rune Andersen was set up to monitor progress in reforming Russia’s anti-doping program, and in March report- ed that there was “significant work to do.”

On Wednesday, WADA released another damning report on the doping situation in Russia, one of the world’s sporting superpowers, who were second behind the US in the athletics medal table at the 2012 Olympic Games.

That report revealed 52 new failed tests and stories of extraordinary attempts to avoid, obstruct or intimidate drug testers, suggesting that attempts to change the culture of doping in Russia had failed.

The federation had scheduled the vote for June so that, if the ban were to be lifted, Russian athletes would have a reasonable chance to register Olympic qualifying standards before the July 11 cutoff.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach was asked this month if the IOC, holding its own Olympic Summit on Tuesday, would be prepared to overrule an IAAF ban and allow Russian athletes to go to Rio. He replied, “I cannot speculate.”

“This meeting ... will be to protect the clean athletes and ensure a level playing field for all the athletes participating in Rio,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday there should be no collective punishment for Russian athletes and that doping should not be politicized or used to push an anti-Russian agenda.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was ready to take legal steps to prevent its athletes being banned en masse.

Twice Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva intends to prove in court that the ban on Russian athletes from international competition is a violation of human rights, TASS reported Friday.