Big decision for Coe’s IAAF

Monaco – Sebastian Coe (above) will find himself firmly in the spotlight once again today as track and field’s governing body consider whether to reintegrate doping-tainted Russia into world athletics.

The Russian athletics federation (Rusaf) was initially banned by the Coe-headed IAAF in November 2015 over allegations of widespread government-backed doping fraud, with that suspension upheld eight times since.

The landscape has changed somewhat, however, with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s September lifting of the three-year ban on Russia’s anti-doping agency (Rusada) for non-compliance.

Wada drew heavy international criticism when it voted to declare Rusada “compliant”, before being granted access to Moscow raw data. It responded by promising it will impose new sanctions if Russia did not cooperate by December 31 and a team visited the Russian capital last week.

The Wada decision has left the IAAF facing a tough decision and even led Rusaf to appeal against its IAAF suspension at the Court of Arbitration of Sport.

Coe insisted that Russia needed to meet two pre-conditions to be allowed to return to competition.

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

And secondly, they must provide access to the data from testing of samples at the Moscow laboratory from 2011-2015, so that the Athletics Integrity Unit can determine whether the suspicious findings reported should be pursued. –