RUSSIANS ACKNOWLEDGE DOPE ROW

New York: Russian anti-doping officials have acknowledged a massive doping conspiracy in their country, but still reject claims of government involvement in the affair that rocked world sport, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. “It was an institutional conspiracy,” Anna Antseliovich, the acting director general of Russia’s national anti-doping agency, told the newspaper in an article datelined from Moscow. However, Antseliovich and others interviewed continued to reject the characterization of the doping scheme as “statesponsored,” telling the Times that top government officials were not involved. Investigator Richard McLaren said in a new report for the World AntiDoping Agency this month that more than 1,000 Russian athletes in some 30 sports took part in a plan for Moscow sports ministry officials to use banned drugs at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the 2012 London Summer Games and other global events. — AFP