Russia’s return on IAAF agenda

MONACO — World athletics boss Sebastian Coe will be in the spotlight on Tuesday as track and field’s governing body considers reintegrating doping-tainted Russia into the IAAF fold.

The Russian athletics federation (RUSAF) was initially banned by the IAAF in November 2015 over allegations of widespread governmentbacked doping, with the suspension upheld eight times since.

The landscape has changed somewhat, however.

The World Anti-Doping Agency in September lifted a three-year ban on Russia’s anti-doping agency (RUSADA) for non-compliance and drew heavy international criticism when it voted to declare the Russian agency “compliant” before being granted access to raw data in Moscow.

WADA responded by promising it will impose new sanctions if Russia did not cooperate by Dec 31.

The WADA decision has left IAAF president Coe facing a tough decision and led RUSAF to appeal its suspension at the Court of Arbitration of Sport.

Following WADA’s decision to lift the ban, Coe said Russia needed to meet two preconditions to be allowed to return to international athletics.

First, Russian authorities must acknowledge the findings of the McLaren and Schmid commissions that sports ministry officials were implicated in the scheme to cover up the doping of Russian athletes as described in their reports.

Second, Russian authorities must provide access to the data from testing of samples at the Moscow laboratory from 2011-15, so that the Athletics Integrity Unit can determine whether the suspicious findings reported in the Moscow lab’s database should be pursued.

‘See things out’

“We need to see things out to the end,” Bernard Amsalem, a member of the IAAF council, said on the weekend. “We imposed conditions and if those conditions aren’t fulfilled, then we must extend the suspension of Russia.”

At Tuesday’s meeting in Monaco, Norwegian Rune Andersen, who heads the IAAF’s Russian task force, will present his recommendations to the council, after which Coe will call on the 26-member body to vote on Russia’s possible reintegration.

“What would we do if WADA isn’t able to get access to the laboratory data between now and December 31?” Amsalem said in reference to WADA’s demands that access to the Moscow lab be a condition of reinstatement. “I know some council members, like me, will not yield.”

While RUSAF has been banned, the IAAF has allowed Russian athletes who could prove they were clean to train in proper environments and compete under a neutral flag.

“We’ve already reintegrated numerous athletes, we’ve left the door open for a little while,” Amsalem said.

The last full Russian athletics delegation competed at the 2015 Beijing world championships.

Since then, one Russian competed at the Rio Olympics in 2016, 19 at the London world championships a year later and 72 at the European championships in Berlin in August.

We imposed conditions and if those conditions aren’t fulfilled, then we must extend the suspension of Russia.” Bernard Amsalem, IAAF council member