New doubts over Russia’s return

THE MAN whose explosive report blew the lid off Russian doping has cast serious doubt over whether the country will be ready to compete at the Winter Olympics next year. Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren compiled a report last year that revealed institutionalised doping in Russia. Now he doubts whether Russia will have cleaned up their act sufficiently to compete in PyeongChang in 2018. ‘I would think it would be a real struggle and a lot of hard work to meet that timetable,’ said McLaren, speaking to 700 of the world’s leading antidoping experts in Lausanne. Also appearing was recently appointed Russian sports minister Pavel Kolobkov, who continued to deny state involvement in the doping scandal. Kolobkov claimed the ‘greatest tragedy’ in Russian sport was the International Association of Athletics Federations and International Paralympic Committee banning the country’s athletes from the Rio Games. It was ‘simply inhuman,’ he said. Travis Tygart, the boss of the US Anti-Doping Agency, said of Kolobkov’s speech: ‘Not that all of us were expecting the apology to clean athletes that they deserve, but I thought the unapologetic and brazen approach was pretty generally stunning.’ Beckie Scott, chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s athlete committee, said Kolobkov’s speech ‘sounded like a persistent reluctance to accept the McLaren report’. Russian athletes’ participation in South Korea will be decided upon late this year or early next year. Meanwhile, Russian doctor Sergei Portugalov has been banned for life from involvement in athletics. The Court of Arbitration for Sport said there was ‘clear evidence’ he doped athletes.

DURBAN has been stripped of the 2022 Commonwealth Games after failing to meet the criteria set by the Games Federation. Liverpool have already expressed an interest in taking over.